Get Baptised in the Spirit

Driscoll on Cessationism

I'm currently reading Colin Hansen's book 'Young, Restless and Reformed' where he documents the story of the Calvinistic resurgence in the states. Chapter seven is on Driscoll and Mars Hill and as always he has something humorously offensive to say:

'...I had been basically a theological cessationist and a fan of fundamentalist straw man attacks on charismatics... It wasn't until some years later, however, that I came to see the cessationists' interpretation of 1 Corinthians 12-14 as the second worst exegesis I had ever read, next to that of a Canadian nudist arsonist I once did some research on.' (pg 145)

Is that a bit strong Driscoll? Well actually I can see his very clear point. I'm a convinced charismatic thanks to well... what I see as bad cessionist arguments as well as scriptural texts that tell us when the miraculous gifts will cease (1 Corinthians 13:8-12).

Cessionism can be misinterpreted though. I know cessainionists' who have seen more healing's and visions and are more filled with the Spirit than some of my charismatic friends. I'm glad the same God is at work in the whole of the authentic church.

Why I Pray for Signs and Wonders

Imagine you're a disciple of Christ. You seen Him on earth, you ate with Him and spent time with Him. People started to associate you with Jesus as Peter was associated with Him. Jesus dies and is then resurrected. He's then seen by over 500 others (1 Cor 15:6) before ascending to heaven. After Pentecost people start to preach the crucified Christ. The evidence for this story is that the people who preach this message lived their lives along side Jesus. Some of the Christians were eye witnesses to the risen Christ but despite this the Holy Spirit still chooses to accompany their preached word with signs and words to testify to the validity of that word (Acts 14:3). You would have thought that the accounts of 500 spectators would have been sufficient to convince the unbelieving world.

God goes further than us. Why should we stop seeking signs and wonders to accompany the preached word? We shouldn't. Paul was rich in theology and miracles. He understood the purpose of both. God sometimes uses signs and wonders to testify that we are preaching the real gospel. We must expect more.

God's Plan to Capture and Captivate You

Here are the notes from a talk I delivered a few Wednesdays ago for the Student Cafe at Montpelier Place....

Introduction:
· If you start to understand this book [the Bible] it will overwhelm you.
· Scripture has always been doing devastatingly powerful things and is still working today
· I want you (if you’re not a Christian) to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour through the power of this book.

Read Gal 4:4-9
(4) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
(5) to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
(6) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
(7) So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
(8) Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
(9) But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God….

Paul is a writing a letter to a church in Galatia
v8 Paul looks back to what the Galatians were before becoming Christians

1. Not knowing God-
They didn’t have any understanding
They didn’t want to find the real God.

2. Enslaved to things that are not gods- you have to worship something
· Not knowing God always leads to being enslaved to something else
· You’re enslaved to whatever you think God is
· Sin is worshipping everything as God that is not God.
· Enslaved= captured by something that makes you think gives you life (it tells you that it satisfies but never does). You have to serve that god because you believe in it’s preciousness and quality = drugs, alcohol, pornography, getting a good job, education, fashion/clothing, your sex life, food, family, reputation, the thoughts your friends have of you. Everyone serves a god like this.

3. What does the real God think? We worship tiny-created things and adore them as if they were amazing then reject Him- and He is amazing. He’s angry because of that.
We’re supposed to be loving Him and we love everything else in His place and so we are screaming ‘we hate you God’. God will send you to Hell for that. We all deserve to burn for offending spectacular beauty.

But God offers power to change.
Power to stop worshipping other ‘stuff’ as if it is God and to start worshipping Him because He is God.
Power to get things in perspective.
Power to be forgiven so that we can worship Him.

It’s all about Jesus…

God didn’t give up on the world or abandon it-he didn’t divorce His creatures-we’re made in His image
He became a man
He became like us:
1. Born of a woman: he was a real human-ate, coughed, got tired, and went to the loo, suffered in a world full of loneliness and hurt
2. Born under the law-obligated to obey it like us.

· To redeem those under the law:
1. You can’t obey the law perfectly-Jesus can and did.
2. Jesus offers His perfect obedience to you

What’s the point of it all? V5
· To love your Dad
· God wants you in His family –he’s got a birth certificate with your name on it.
· Jesus died for your ‘worship of other god’s’ so that you could know the pleasure of enjoying Him.

What happens if you accept? V6, 7
The Holy Spirit = God, lives in you to help you and comfort you
Then you can say ‘Abba Father’- shows an intimate connection
What was your Dad like? God is a million times better.
You become God’ Son and an heir.

Advice for New Christians

The following is something I wrote in a letter to a friend. Thought it might bless others if posted here...

• Everything you do must be done with a love for God (1 Cor 13v1-7). Notice in verse 3 Paul claims that if someone is to be martyred without love it’s of zero use.
• Give yourself to memorizing the Bible. Hide the Word in your heart to deter from sin (Psalm 119v11). You need to fight Satan with scripture. Therefore try to remember 4 scriptures every week. Find a method that suits you. Make sure you remember the reference as well as the content of the verse.
• Make yourself happy in God. This means thinking about God’s beauty to motivate you to worship. You can’t glorify God without enjoying Him. Christ should be so attractive to you that everything else looks like rubbish (Phil 3v8).
• Make sure you exhort someone and someone exhorts you. Hebrews 3v13 states that we can be hardened by sin; inviting someone to point out your own sin to can prevent this.
• Speak about what Jesus has been doing for and in you with people in your Church. Look at the last part of Luke 6v45: If your heart is full of Jesus, if you love Him more than anything else you will have to speak about Him because He’s wonderful!
• Revelation 2 v1-4. This church were acting outwardly in a good way but not loving God. You can be living a good moral life and be quenching the Holy Spirit. What do you desire? If the heart does not desire God, God is not pleased. Pleasing God is being pleased with Him.
• Don’t stop seeking more of the Holy Spirit. See Eph 3v19: Paul prays this for Christians! You don’t have the fullness of the Spirit when you are first saved. Although you have the Holy Spirit you need to be constantly seeking more of the His power (Eph 5v18).

Why we have to be happy in God to glorify Him

'According to my judgment the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord's work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself!' - George Mueller

Doesn't it sound selfish to make yourself happy in God? Surely that's just using God to make you happy? Below is the reasoning that forces me to believe (like George Mueller) this it is essential to make myself happy in God:

1) The chief purpose of the Christian Life is to glorify God. (1 Cor 10v31)

2) When sinners are born-again they receive a new heart. ( Ezekiel 36v26)

3) The heart's function is to produce desires. (Psalm 37v4b)

4) The new heart (given by God) produces spiritual desires or desires rooted in the Holy Spirit.

5) To be happy is to fulfill desires and cravings. The greatest measure of happiness happens all desires are fulfilled.

6) To be happy in God is to fulfill Spiritual desires from the new heart.

7) Holy-Spirit desires are given so that the fulfilment of them glorifies God. (God does all things for His own glory).

8) By implication of 6) and 7) we must make ourselves happy in God (fulfilling Spiritual desires) because this glorifies Him.

Three Misconceptions about Happiness:

1) I can't be 'happy in God' all the time because sorrow is a good emotion that God wants me to experience (2 Cor 7v10).

This misconception assumes that humans exert one emotion at a time. The truth is we can be happy and sorrowful simultaneously. 2 Cor 6v10: 'sorrowful yet always rejoicing'. A happiness in God can happen when we are filled with sadness.

2) Happiness is given by God sometimes and other times not. It is not to be pursued. It's to be accepted if God chooses to let me enjoy it.

If this is true why did Paul command the Philippians several times to 'Rejoice in the Lord' (Phil 4v4). Not rejoicing is a sin. Getting joy in God is commanded therefore it is our obligation and duty.

3) Pursuing your own Happiness is living by feelings and not faith.

Faith and feelings are not independent of each other. The right faith tends to produce the right feelings (Rom 15v13).

'God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in.' -Jonathon Edwards

New Book!

Today is new book day. To celebrate I purchased myself a copy of Martin Luther's Table talk.

It's a collection of every recorded word Luther spoke around a table...apparently. The book is divided into multiple sections for easy reference to Luther's views on specific subjects.

Here are a few excerpts:

'Sins against the Holy Ghost are, first, presumption; second, despair; third, opposition to and condemnation of known truth; fourth, not to wish well, but to grudge one's brother or neighbor the grace of God; fifth, to be hardened; sixth, to be penitent.'

'A good preacher should have these properties and virtues; first, to teach systematically; secondly, he should have a ready wit; thirdly, he should be eloquent; fourthly, he should have a good voice; fifthly, a good memory; sixthly, he should know where to make an end; seventhly, he should be sure of his doctrine; eighthly, he should venture and engage body and blood, wealth and honour, in the word; ninthly, he should suffer himself to be mocked and jeered of every one.'

'To live openly among the people is best; Christ so lived and walked, openly and publicly, here on earth, amongst the people, and told his disciples to do the like. `Tis in cells and corners that the wicked wretches, the monks and nuns, lead shameful lives. But openly, and among people, a man must live decently and honestly.'

All for the bargain price of £5 courtesy of Wesley Owen. Great stuff.

Off to be a best man for the weekend. Please pray for the speech!

The Holy Spirit, Power in the Church and Revival

'[We] can produce a number of converts, thank God for that, and that goes on regularly in evangelical churches every Sunday. But the need today is much too great for that. The need today is for an authentication of God, of the supernatural, of the spiritual, of the eternal, and this can only be answered by God graciously hearing our cry and shedding forth again his Spirit upon us and filling us as he kept filling the early church.

What is needed is some mighty demonstration of the power of God, some enactment of the Almighty, that will compel people to pay attention, and to look, and to listen. And the history of all the revivals of the past indicates so clearly that that is invariably the effect of revival, without any exception at all. That is why I am calling attention to revival. That is why I am urging you to pray for this. When God acts, he can do more in a minute that man with his organizing can do in fifty years.' -Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones