A New Creature

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:7).

 

Whenever the Holy Spirit enters any person, He brings His holy nature with Him. The result is that all those in whom the Spirit of God dwells have new holy hungers and holy loves they did not have prior to having His indwelling presence.
There are new created things that take place. They hunger for His holy Word, which they used to find boring or irrelevant. They love fellowship with the people of God, finding it unimaginable to live apart from meaningful interaction with them. Hearts and minds find new desires of holy longings. They long to live in a body without sin. They groan for a holy world filled with holy people, and long to see at last the face of the one that angels call “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Rev. 4:8).
This is the heartbeat of 100 percent of the hearts where the Spirit of God lives. A person may be nine years of age, yet where the Spirit of God has come to him or her, then these hungers are planted there.
According to the Word of God, of course, there is a desire to pray. The Spirit of God creates an inward desire to cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). All those who are born again, born of God, want to pray.
It does not matter if the one who says he is born again is nine or ninety, there is the ever-fresh, evergreen work of the Holy Spirit manifested in every person in whom He dwells.

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    (I John 5:14).

     The film starred by Jimmy Stewart, “It’s a Wonderful Life” teaches the value of a man who gives up his dreams and looks after the affairs of others. The life of “George” was a life that changed history because of his unselfish desires for others. Lives were saved, families were made whole, and individuals were elevated to better personalities and jobs.

     What about praying to God? Praying is asking Him for a certain thing. Praying is allowing God to change your heart to match His. Praying can be done anytime, anywhere. The more we pray according to God’s heart, the more we are changed. The more we are changed, the more we impact the world. Praying changes things, starting with us. When we pray, our prayers can also change history.

     “What can happen when I pray?” That’s a “Wonderful Life!” You’ll never know all that happens when you pray, but the results are often bigger than you think or imagine. Lives are different. Prayers of people, just like us, ordinary people, opened the doors to God’s work. And your prayers can do the same.

     

  • God the Shelter

    “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I”

    (Psalm 61:2).

     

    Jesus is to be the center of it all. Everything.
    Today at the Good News Baptist Church on the island of St. Maarten, we sang a song that expressed this prayer. God is the star of His own movie. For so many of us we think indirectly or directly much of this thought:  It is about us.
    When we pray we are asking God to guide, to guard, and to govern. We must realize He is the One who gives breath and life. He is the only One who has the power and the prowess to do just this. And He desires to honor you as you and I honor Him. We are very insignificant when it comes to the almightiness of the God who stands apart from us.
    Today when you call upon His name remember that He loves you and He desires you with all of your warts and blemishes. He desires greatly to bring glory to His own name through your life. It is God who is pursuing Himself in you. Allow this God of glory to have His will and His pleasure in your life. It is amazing to receive and feel His love.

  • The Dark Day of Redemption

    “And they shall scourge him, and put him to death. And the third day he shall rise again” (Luke 18:33).

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    It is none other than the Son of man. He came to save and to seek those who are lost. What does it mean to be lost? It means to understand that God loved you, satisfied His own righteousness by judging His own Son to death upon a rugged tree for you and for me. He went to the desk of Calvary and paid the bill for you with His own blood, the payment of sin which leads to death.

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    The second lesson to draw from the true event described for us: Don’t allow division. A man or woman of God will not be identified with division in a marriage, a family, or a church body, for division leads either quickly or eventually to one thing: death. Don’t be a part of tolerating division unless it is for righteousness. May we be surrendered to God’s Word as Solomon and committed to unity as this mother was.

  • Revival and Integrity

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  • Is God on America’s Side?

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    Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, was asked whether God was on his side and he replied, “I do not care whether God is on my side; the important question is whether I am on God’s side, for God is always right.”

    Our greatest gift to this country is to return to biblical priorities of the church, and, more importantly, in so doing we will be pleasing to our Heavenly Father.