These are my notes from a recent Bill Johnson sermon I listened to, so apologies Bill and to you guys, hopefully though I have captured something of the essence of the message, the Lord bless it to you! It's a fantastically encouraging message!
Genesis2:18 And the Lord God said, “ It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Ephesians 2:31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Apparently the Hebrew word for 'helper' is two words, Hebrew often has no vowels so you can get a word with two or three words squashed together. The word is best translated as, 'power', 'strength', and 'rescue' - the King James translaters made this into 'helper'. Comparable means 'face to face' or 'reflecting' or 'doing on behalf of' or 'doing together'
Paul in Ephesians 2:31 reflects on the relationship between a man and a woman being like that between Christ and the church or you and me and Jesus
My orginal notes are below . . ( a woman's role? of course in relation to Christ it's a man's as well and I'm sure equally applies to a husband and wife . .)
Stand face to face to God - like a wife (a mans strength, power, rescue - true meaning of 'helper' in Genesis 2) and you will go past what Jesus did
God doesn't need anything except you
God has chosen you as an individual, by grace something unique in your being that only you can do
I want to represent Jesus well, actually be Jesus to people
You represent Him in a way that only you could, you represent a unique aspect of God
Each of us has the privilege of representing Him uniquely and differently
A realm where we are co labourers with God to bring about His will - as oppose to those occasions where a sovereign act of God brings His will about
It's tragic to wait for a sovereign act not realising that in His definition of sovereignty, your obediance, your desires, your dreams were all written into His definition of sovereignty . .
Bethel Church sermon of the week podcasts (inc Bill Johnson) here
Bethel Church Video, free registration and some videos free, quite alot of the previews play all the way through! here - watch and listen on your PC !
*As a side note it's worth reflecting on the sovereignty of God further, the great battle evangelicals fought over this in relation to salvation, yet the incongruity many (most?) evangelicals have in relation to healing! In other words the truths evangelicals fought for in relation to salvation absolutely must apply to healing! One for another email . . .
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Strength Comes From Joy
" . .and perhaps as we consider it, and remark the multiplied reasons for its existence, some of those reasons may operate upon our own hearts, and we may go out of this house of prayer ourselves partakers of the exceeding great joy" Spurgeon Sermon
"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
WITH JOY YOU WILL DRAW WATER FROM THE WELLS OF SALVATION" Isaiah 12:2-3
"You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" Psalm 16:11
For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. Psalm 21:6
When I first stop to think on these verses they seem unrealistic, 'fullness of joy' ok I can accept that, maybe from time to time. 'pleasures forevermore', now hold on a minute, forevermore ! Perhaps that's only in heaven when we are his right hand, well actually Christ is at God's right hand and Ephesians 2:6 tells we are also sat there with Him!
So maybe we can begin to accept what these verses say in our head. And we know we have a living relationship with Jesus and "fullness of joy" and "with joy" and being "exceedingly glad" can't be just head knowledge, surely we are to experience this? So what could practically help us?
Someone once explained to me and Emma (thank you Rick!) that we each have in us a well of salvation, from which joy flows. It can get a little stopped up though, like a real well. Busyness, family concerns, worry, etc. Can we think of times when these things seem to become smaller and we have experienced peace and joy? Presence is mentioned in the verses above, so maybe it's when we come into His presence? It might help us to reflect a little , for example, can you think of a worship CD you used to listen to, at home or in the car. Or may be a church service you used to go to fairly regularly, or a prayer time you used to have, a group you used to belong to or someone you still get together with and you used to pray more together?
Perhaps it would be good to try and do these things again or similar, or do them more? I have found that when I try to do this there is an initial resistance, sometimes quite strong!. So at first there is a bit of determination needed. Often in the past when the time for evening service approached, though I had been fully intending to go, I suddenly felt I didn't want to. All sorts of things would come into my head, like, Iv'e not had my tea, why not take it easy and watch telly, I'm not in the mood for mixing with people, my wife/husband won't be pleased, and so on! A few years ago this happened and guess what? I dropped off going! And yet I've found that if I push through and go, there is tremendous blessing, worry goes peace returns, joy comes, etc. Similarly I can sat in the car and think, I'll put that Christian worship CD on and there can be an immediate resistance, no I prefer Radio 4 or the news, or Radio 1 or whatever. Occasionaly even if I put the worship music on, the first song starts and I think, 'no, I don't like this', it jarrs, doesn't sound right, However, at some point I am drawn into His presence, sometimes there is something I need to confess, and/or a conversation starts, 'you know what God I've been worrying about . . or I've been rushing around and hardly thought of you or asked you for help' Apply the same principle to whatever it is you used to do. Perhaps a key here is determine in your own mind that you will use the negative feeling as a trigger to do that thing, ie pray, listen to worship music, go to church, whatever it is that used to bring you into His presence After a while you will realise you have established a new habit and that negative feeling will come rarely, but, remember and say to yourself, 'you know what if it does come, that's my trigger to do, to go'.
I meant to talk about strength coming from joy, but, maybe the above is right for now
"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
WITH JOY YOU WILL DRAW WATER FROM THE WELLS OF SALVATION" Isaiah 12:2-3
"You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" Psalm 16:11
For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. Psalm 21:6
When I first stop to think on these verses they seem unrealistic, 'fullness of joy' ok I can accept that, maybe from time to time. 'pleasures forevermore', now hold on a minute, forevermore ! Perhaps that's only in heaven when we are his right hand, well actually Christ is at God's right hand and Ephesians 2:6 tells we are also sat there with Him!
So maybe we can begin to accept what these verses say in our head. And we know we have a living relationship with Jesus and "fullness of joy" and "with joy" and being "exceedingly glad" can't be just head knowledge, surely we are to experience this? So what could practically help us?
Someone once explained to me and Emma (thank you Rick!) that we each have in us a well of salvation, from which joy flows. It can get a little stopped up though, like a real well. Busyness, family concerns, worry, etc. Can we think of times when these things seem to become smaller and we have experienced peace and joy? Presence is mentioned in the verses above, so maybe it's when we come into His presence? It might help us to reflect a little , for example, can you think of a worship CD you used to listen to, at home or in the car. Or may be a church service you used to go to fairly regularly, or a prayer time you used to have, a group you used to belong to or someone you still get together with and you used to pray more together?
Perhaps it would be good to try and do these things again or similar, or do them more? I have found that when I try to do this there is an initial resistance, sometimes quite strong!. So at first there is a bit of determination needed. Often in the past when the time for evening service approached, though I had been fully intending to go, I suddenly felt I didn't want to. All sorts of things would come into my head, like, Iv'e not had my tea, why not take it easy and watch telly, I'm not in the mood for mixing with people, my wife/husband won't be pleased, and so on! A few years ago this happened and guess what? I dropped off going! And yet I've found that if I push through and go, there is tremendous blessing, worry goes peace returns, joy comes, etc. Similarly I can sat in the car and think, I'll put that Christian worship CD on and there can be an immediate resistance, no I prefer Radio 4 or the news, or Radio 1 or whatever. Occasionaly even if I put the worship music on, the first song starts and I think, 'no, I don't like this', it jarrs, doesn't sound right, However, at some point I am drawn into His presence, sometimes there is something I need to confess, and/or a conversation starts, 'you know what God I've been worrying about . . or I've been rushing around and hardly thought of you or asked you for help' Apply the same principle to whatever it is you used to do. Perhaps a key here is determine in your own mind that you will use the negative feeling as a trigger to do that thing, ie pray, listen to worship music, go to church, whatever it is that used to bring you into His presence After a while you will realise you have established a new habit and that negative feeling will come rarely, but, remember and say to yourself, 'you know what if it does come, that's my trigger to do, to go'.
I meant to talk about strength coming from joy, but, maybe the above is right for now
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