Category: Jesus

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Angels Faith Glory Jesus

Gabriel and an Angel of the Lord Announced

Gabriel and an Angel of the Lord announced the birth of Jesus Christ.

Angels are messengers. Gabriel is an Archangel. An Angel of the Lord is a very special Angel representing God – who some believe actually is God.

Clearly these are very special messengers who announce the birth of Jesus Christ.

Common reactions to angels in scripture include great weakness, fear, and often an inclination to worship.

So to receive such announcements is no small thing. Angels make a strong impression and can even be terrifying to those who experience such messengers.

And to receive such a message from the Archangel Gabriel or an Angel of the Lord — must only multiply and make even much stronger an inclination to worship, to be filled with terror, or both.

Powerful messengers give powerful messages and powerful experiences.

Take a moment and imagine what it may be like to receive such a message. A message actually announcing the birth of Jesus Christ.

We’ve heard or read the story so many times that we probably have forgotten, even if we had some idea, forgotten what it must have been like to receive such a message.

And the message itself, delivered by angels: announcing the birth of the Savior of our world! To people who probably had heard prophecies of this, but who had not lived their whole lives like we have with this birth being an established fact.

Powerful messages, by powerful angels. The experience of a lifetime. Provoking awe, possibly fear, and probably a desire to worship.

The mere idea of this as I consider the importance and value of such an announcement brings tears to my eyes as I write this. No doubt a very weak reaction compared to the people who received such messages.

And only a hint of the glory of the delivery of such messages, as to the birth of Jesus Christ – the Savior or our world.

And for Gabriel, a high honor to give such a message. And for the Angel of the Lord — I cannot begin to understand what it was like for the Angel of the Lord to give such a message.

I do know this: considering what it may have been like to receive such a message, and considering what it may have been like to deliver such a message — deepens my appreciation for such events. And brings to me a bit more awe and a bit more sense of the holy, and the Holy One who is Jesus the Christ.

And I pray the same blessing for you. Take a moment to pause in the Presence of God, of Immanuel, God with us — and give thanks.

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Conversation with God Friendship Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Jesus's Communication Ministry Prayer

Hearing and Seeing What God has to Say with a Spiritual Director

Help Hearing God

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend has a simple job: to help you hear God for yourself, with greater confidence and clarity, joining in a conversation that God is already having with you.

When you want to receive what God has to “say” (it’s not always in words), a spiritual director can sometimes be mighty helpful. I know, because I’ve been helped this way. Often.

Why and how can this be? What goes on? I’m still figuring this out, but my current understanding is something like this:

“Hearing” God can be hard, because:

-Our own opinions, beliefs, personal history and other “stuff” can sometimes make it harder to hear God by ourselves.

-A lot of us still need a lot more practice trying to hear from God. (Hearing is a metaphor that can include words, still knowing that is pre-verbal, seeing or feeling something, noticing thoughts in our mind that might be from God, and lots more. Whew! No wonder we can use help!)

-There are many ways God “speaks” to us, and the methods God uses have useful side effects to help us. For more on this, see: https://ministermorelikejesus.com/voices-of-god/

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend can sometimes help:

-Your issues are not felt so deeply by another person, are not so personal, making hearing easier.

-Someone with practice hearing from God, and whose abilities complement yours can be a wonderful partner. Especially when

-They care. When you and they have a “heart connection”, connect well.

-Having someone who listens deeply and well, with their heart, helps us all clarify issues and be clearer and more ready for fresh insight.

A Spiritual Director of spiritual friend has a Helper, Holy Spirit, who

-Is the same Helper and Comforter who is helping you! We have Someone in common.

-The two humans can have a conversation, which is private and aimed at helping, and both of us have the same Holy Spirit who is communicating with you.

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend has had lots of experience receiving such help. Knows what it’s like. Can be sensitive to issues about spiritual direction and to what may matter to you.

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend has a simple job: to help you hear God for yourself, with greater confidence and clarity, joining in a conversation that God is already having with you.

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Conversation with God Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Learning Prayer

How I hear God More Easily – Not Buying Another Book.

Holy Spirit – from Unsplash.com

I’ve learned that when I think I need to buy another book about hearing God well, what it really means for me is that I am not full enough of Holy Spirit.

I have not asked to be more full of Holy Spirit and received by faith. It’s easy to do. I may not feel Holy Spirit, but the results are easy to notice.

Hearing from God is lots and lots easier for me when I am full of Holy Spirit. And all I have to do is ask, and receive by faith. No drama needed. I rarely notice more of Holy Spirit, except for the side effects, which are extremely obvious. Such as hearing God better.

(I mention that twice because it’s so important, and too easy to miss.)

When I follow Holy Spirit, Fruit of the Spirit is easy, and just flows. Love, patience, self-control, and other good Fruit.

I am operating out of my New Self instead of my Old self. New Self has no wounds or over-reactions. No traumas. No lack of access to wisdom and love and…other wonderful things.

Best of all, I am hearing from God more easily.

And I didn’t even distract myself by buying yet another book on the subject – because that wasn’t my issue. I just need to pay attention and ask for and receive more of Holy Spirit by faith.

Which is really easy. Even when I don’t feel it; but the results are easy to notice.

How does being more full of Holy Spirit help you with hearing from God better?

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Conversation with God Discipleship Father Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Lessons

Use All Your Senses

Hearing God

When God speaks to you, be alert with all of your senses. “Speak” is a metaphor for anything God “says”.

You might see something, sometimes quickly and when it’s surprising, its too easy to ignore. So pay close attention to what comes next after you ask a question or pause to listen and “hear”.

You might hear something. Still Small Voice may speak to you silently, before words.

A memory may come. An association – an idea. It can come in any good way.

And more. Events, people, book covers, songs, billboards, birds, forests, seas, lakes and rivers. Flowers. (Can you tell I love hearing God through nature?)

To get more used to this, learn to pay attention to the many kinds of “Voices of God“.

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Disciple Making Evangelize Gospel Healing Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry Miracles Success

Disciple-Making on Steroids

Miracle of Jesus Healing a Blind Man

Discipling someone, or several people, can can succeed a lot faster than most of us are used to. I call this “Disciple-Making on Steroids” because this approach is so powerful and fast.

Here’s an example to learn from, that, with variations – depending on your situation, can be done more easily and more quickly than perhaps we have ever seen.

On the street or in a supermarket or other store, or maybe a shopping mall, you see someone who obviously needs healing. Their injury or disability or pain is obvious to you.

So you walk up to them and say, “Hello. My name is ____; it looks to me like you have some” pain, difficulty, injury, disability – whatever it is. Make it easy for them to talk to you about it. Make sure you discover what it is that they cannot do or cannot easily do, because of that particular need of healing.

Ask them if it’s okay for you to pray for them. Most people will be glad for such prayer, if by then you are in rapport. If they are not willing, thank them and let them be.

You can pray for them at a distance if you like.

Keep doing this until you discover someone who is willing to be prayed for.

Pray for them, praying to Jesus, maybe something like, “Dear Jesus, help this person with ____” whatever is needed. They expected you to pray for them, and it’s easy for them to say yes to such a request. Then be sure to quietly but with authority – like when you are talking to a child or a pet and you really mean it – tell that need for healing to be healed. Be sensitive to Holy Spirit and do as seems best.

Ask them to test, to do what they could not easily do or could not do. When they succeed, give thanks to Jesus!

When that does not go well, you can be like Jesus healing the blind man who could see a bit more at first, but needed more healing and said something like, “I see men walking, but they are like trees walking”. So, like Jesus, you pray (and command with authority), healing again.

If you want to do it like Jesus did, and was so successful at healing so often (always), you can do it like this:

Keep testing the healing until it is done. Persist.

Now comes the cool part, disciple making on steroids:

Now that they have been healed, ask them something like, “Would you like to give your life to Jesus and have him as your Lord?” When they say yes, lead them in such a prayer. When they say no, just continue as if they had. Because of what happens next, they probably will.

Take the person who has now been healed and who now has Jesus (or not) in them, and go with them. Find someone else who has an obvious need of healing. Instruct them to pray for and command healing, just as they experienced. Have them heal the person in need. Pray for them and their ministry, and their good success while that do that. Help them out loud as called for and needed.

Now you have someone with you who has been healed, who has come to Jesus (or not, yet). If not yet come to Jesus, ask them if they want to make it official now, and help them accept Jesus as Lord. If not, get their contact information, pray for them, and follow up and give them encouragement and help as you are led with Holy Spirit. Just do the best you can and ask for help through Holy Spirit.

I like to ask for more of Holy Spirit before I pray for someone or minister. My prayer and ministry is more effective when I do this, and I hear God better, too.

.

I believe that this is how Jesus wants us to minister in these times. In these days. The time is short: make disciples, with Holy Spirit, on steroids!

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Conversation with God Disciple Making Discipleship Evangelize Faith Friendship Getting Help Gospel Jesus Joy Kingdom of God Ministry Prayer

There are Multiple Biblical Ways to Salvation

John Benitez – Unsplash

Those of us who use even a somewhat Evangelical approach to salvation have a few prayers that we encourage so that someone can experience salvation.

The Bible takes a different approach. So much so that the most frequent method to attain salvation in the bible is one I’ve never seen or heard of being used with a potential convert. By hindsight, this is a bit astounding.

Yet in real life, it makes perfect sense. And the usual prayers are used for several good reasons.

It really is wise and good that we get to know more consciously about Jesus, and Jesus as our Lord. And that this be expressed clearly in our prayer.

So what is this most frequently mentioned method of achieving salvation in scriptures that is so unused for making converts? It’s actually a method frequently used by the rest of us.

A very common prayer, used by many of us when we need help, when we need and want to be saved. Just seldom used to help someone become a convert to Christianity.

What is this frequently used approach for getting help when most needed, but seldom if ever used to help someone become a convert?

It’s simply this: call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

Biblical theology is probably wider and more inclusive than our theologies. God is certainly more broad minded than we are.

And this illustrates very well how some things are taught about to us and for us in scripture from many angles, in many ways. And we tend to focus on one way, sometimes proof-texting, yet even so, we tend to focus on one very good way. But God and scriptures offers more options than we often think about and sometimes more options than we even normally trust or believe in.

Thank you, Lord, for being so broad minded, for thinking differently than we do, for being more loving and generous than we yet are able to grasp.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us eternity to continue to get to know you and your love. We need you. And we need eternity to explore and learn about your love and your depth. Thank you, Lord!

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Conversation with God Discipleship, Getting Help Faith Father Healing Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Key Article Learning Prayer Spiritual Warfare Trinity

Praying for A_____ is Difficult, so….

Leap of Faith, K.B. Owen

This is from my Prayer Journal of today. I was having difficulty praying well for someone I know who needs our Lord’s help. And I was having difficulties, probably because a big part of me is aggravated. That’s not pretty, but it’s the truth. So here is what I wrote; I’ll call this person A______.

I find praying for A______ to be difficult.

So I look to Father, who already had a plan before the beginning, and who looks down on A_______ with immense love.

Then I look to Jesus, who as always is ready to heal.

Then I ask Holy Spirit to tell me how to pray for her. I am to pray with Father’s love and planning for good; pray with Jesus, who is always ready to heal and make whole. And I pray as Holy Spirit is leading me, now.

A______ has been restored and has received complete sozo. So this is how I pray.


Pray according to the nature of each Member of the Trinity, my deepest community and my most real family – who teaches me, mercifully, about how to have more and better faith.

And forgiveness, my ability to forgive and to have forgiven, was included as a free extra – pure grace!

The Trinity is my real family of faith. What a gift!

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Getting Help Healing Holy Spirit Jesus Prayer Prayer, Intercession, Angels,

Jesus Teaches How to Pray

Jesus Teaches us – Intimately and Personally

Jesus will teach you how to pray – if you ask and also pay close attention to whatever it is you experience next. I’m still learning a lot, and he always surprises me. Here’s a recent example.

A good friend was lighting a heater, there was an explosion, and his eyes hurt so much he could not open them. So he went to the hospital emergency room.

I asked Jesus how to pray for him. I saw a thick white line out in front of my eyes; I was seeing through the face of the person who was hurt. Normally, I’d ignore such a strange thing to see, continuing to ask for an answer and looking for one. Which would mean I would miss the answer Jesus had already given.

I’ve learned that the first thing I experience after asking is literally the answer as to how I am to pray. So I prayed by seeing that thick white line in front of my eyes, as I identified as though being the person who was hurt.

This made no sense to me. Even more than usual, this made no sense to me. But I’ve been learning that what I experience first, after asking Jesus how to pray for someone or something – is my answer, and this is literally what I am to do.

This morning the line was far thinner. And I continue to pray this way, seeing that white line, no longer thick, as if through the eyes of my friend who had been hurt. Jesus is healing him.

I also realize that even if I am mistaken in how I am seeing what Jesus says about how to pray, when I pray as I am shown, I am praying with faith.

And I realized my friend is getting better, and I knew he would be okay. And I am to continue to pray this way, enforcing the answer to my question about how to pray in this situation, for this person, until the answer is completely enforced and his healing is complete.

Jesus will also teach me when I’m done, if I am attentive to this issue. He sends Holy Spirit to give me what I need.

And for most of my life I’ve missed the answers he’s given, I suspect, because his answers surprise me so much, seem so unusual and unexpected. And because I had not thought to ask how I should pray; I presumed I knew how to intercede – without asking Jesus and paying close attention to what he says to me through Holy Spirit.

I am slow…but I am learning.

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Evangelize Jesus Joy Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry Presence of God

Experience Jesus

Jesus Invites – by Sitara

I realized something recently that surprised and delighted me. Some years ago I introduced maybe as many as 75 people to how to experience Jesus for themselves, experiencing Jesus in their heart. It was based on a key decision, which I explained they could undo if they did not like the experience or did not want to continue to experience Jesus. Not a single one chose to not continue to experience Jesus in their hearts. That’s astounding, there is little that we humans do that works so well. But then, this was the work of Holy Spirit….

Most of these people went on to be baptized in water, and then be baptized in Holy Spirit. We met in one of three houses, rotating where we met for about two years. Our weekly meetings lasted 6-8 hours; some people came early, others left early. We didn’t have 75 people at these meetings, but the house was always pretty full.

During that time, discipling happened, helped and led by Holy Spirit.

Regardless, we all learned how to experience Jesus. And everyone liked this so much they wanted to continue.

I was inspired to try this with people by Holy Spirit when reading scripture. It was long ago, and I’m not sure, but I suspect I had been reading 1 John, Chapter 4.

Here’s how it went, helping people to experience Jesus for themselves:

Try out these beliefs, and check your heart: you will be experiencing Jesus in your heart.

If you don’t like it, just decide against those beliefs.

Jesus is fully man, completely human.

Jesus is fully God, he is God.

When you believe both of these things: you can experience Jesus in your heart.

Hallelujah!

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Discipleship Gospel Heaven Jesus

Experience a bit of Heaven – Now!

Experience what heaven is like, now. You can do this.

It has been explained to me that the essence of heaven is being face to face with God. Even more near God and God more fully present to us than we have experienced yet here on earth. (Sounds to me like more close than we could experience here and live.)

And yet, we can experience more of our Lord. Being with us and near us; which is the start of how Jesus preaches the Gospel of the Kingdom: the Kingdom is at hand (literally within reach).

We can experience more of this now. By faith.

Let us take seriously such promises, and seek to experience more of them now.

When the New Heaven and New Earth come about, God will literally be our Light, all the time. This is how close we will be: our Light and ability to see is from our Lord. On a daily basis, regularly.

This means that as we go about our business, doing what we do…God is our Light. God is experienced more vividly by us.

So when we read such things as this in the book of Revelation, let us take it seriously; meditate on such verses. Appropriate them and know them as true, by faith.

Then, in such faith, you will experience more of God – even during ordinary life and events. While you are busy and doing things, God is our Light in the New Heaven and New Earth.

Know the truth of this now. And in your heart, with such faith, even to just understand a little bit, such verses and such promises, you will find yourself experiencing some of this – more than has been normal for you.

On earth, these days, when we get busy we get distracted, usually, from thoughts, experience and realization of the reality of God and the Kingdom. In the New Heaven and New Earth, God is the center and literally our Light. We can have awareness of God at all times.

Begin to experience this now, with faith. How wonderful and unusual, experiencing God as close and as our Light even as we go about our business.

Such is the Kingdom of God, for us. Appropriate and receive and experience this in your heart now, with faith, simply by taking his Word seriously. With faith.

And your heart will know and experience the Light of God always with you now….