Devotions for God’s Family – 1

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV): “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

My friends, evangelism is on the rise and I couldn’t be more excited!

I would like to talk with you about evangelism, but in a way that you probably are not expecting. The last thing I want to do, is to tell you to go witness to someone. Doesn’t that sound strange? We are going to talk about witnessing and yet, I don’t want you to go do it?

I want to repackage the entire commission Jesus gave to you. To repackage something is to not lose the substance of the thing, but package that thing so that what is on the inside, is adequately described by what is seen on the outside.

Now granted, we live in a world where more money is spent by companies on the packaging than what is inside, and we often open the package and what is on the inside is of lesser value than what the package describes. We see, “new and improved” this and that, and when we open it it is the same old useless tasteless stuff…right?

Think of the repackaging that I have in mind from this perspective: when it comes to evangelism, the lettering and colors on the outside of the package that describe what is on the inside have been dropped, mishandled and rubbed off over time. What is on the inside is good and pure, and we really do not need to change the original stuff on the inside, nor do we need to change the outside. The important thing is to keep the original insides and repackage the wrapper to the manufacture’s specifications.

In the book of Acts, there is an interesting process that leads to the evangelism explosion that took place at Pentecost. Over the next several devotions, I would like to reveal this process lead by the Holy Spirit. Jesus instituted this with His own words, and I think it is the original design for the expansion of the kingdom of God, even in our day.

I am not sure why evangelism has the stigma that it does today. Actually, I believe I do, but its hard to say because I do not want to discourage well intended ministry leaders who think they are doing a service to God by attempting to form great movements.

Evangelism boils down to strategy. What was the strategy that Jesus had in His mind when He set the church up and commissioned the early Apostles to get after it? God’s strategies do not change, His power rests upon those who do things the way God does things. The Word of God is the strategy, because we are told that the eyes of the Lord look throughout the world for the places where He can strengthen those who are accomplishing the word of God.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NLT): The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

God’s strategy for evangelism is God’s Word. Of course, when a person witnesses the hope is to be able to share the gospel message. That’s not all I am talking about. Consider the process of evangelizing the world as a tractor trailer driving down the road. What is inside the container is the gospel message, that is what is being transported.

The strategy of God is not simply what is in the container, His strategy involves the road and the truck as well.

What if I told you that evangelism could be exciting, miraculous, powerful and even fun? It is, and it is God’s intent to be so. Why has it become so heavy? Why doesn’t anyone want to transport the gospel anymore?

Reason? We have stopped using God’s tractor trailer and now we are trying to hand carry the gospel down the road. We have adopted a different strategy and that strategy is doomed to failure. Our heart is right, but our methodology (strategy) is missing the mark.

I for one want to dig further on this topic and understand more fully what God’s strategy for evangelism is in our time. I believe His strategy is timeless and powerful for our day. I see people more fearful and hungry then in anytime I have been alive. The time for harvest is here and I believe we can have great success if we follow God’s plan.       

Jeremiah 1:12 (ESV): Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”

Let’s journey forward in these next writings to uncover God’s plan for evangelism. Let’s be refreshed with a sense of God’s presence, power and process to reach our world.

Lord, as we go forward in understanding Your plans and strategies to reach the lost, please help us to see You first. We want to see Your heart and fashion our way after You. You did it right! And You always do it right. Please Lord, fall upon us in power so that we can become what this world needs us to be. We want to express Your heart to others so that they can see what we have. We want to share the love You have given to us. Praise Your name Jesus! You have made it possible for us to have a testimony in the first place! Thank you.

Devotional for God’s Family – 2

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV): “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Before the Disciples made a massive church footprint in the sand of their region, there was something very peculiar that happened. Actually, peculiar and vital. So vital, I want to explore it together.

In John 20, there is good news, Jesus comes back to life. As a result of this, the Disciples see Him as He walks right through the door of the locked upper room. How exciting it must have been to be there and see Jesus alive. And the hope of picking up right where they left off…Hmmmm.

1 Corinthians 15:6 (ESV): Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

In the days after His resurrection Jesus appears to many people and shows to them the truth of the gospel message, He is alive! We have no word about the disciples except that they are not with Jesus. After the appearance in the upper room, the disciples are not following Jesus around anymore. They love Him, probably miss Him; but Jesus chooses to work separate from the disciples. Jesus is meeting people and glorifying God; the disciples are simply trying to figure out what they are going to do from this point forward.

In John 21, Peter decides to go fishing and some of the other disciples decide to go with Him.

You would think that seeing Jesus alive would create a powerful stirring in these men. They had first-hand knowledge of God, that almost no one else on earth had. Finally, the world would see, right? No, they go fishing. We also know that they were afraid based on what is said in John 20.

John 20:19 (ESV): On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them.

The situation must have been strange to them, Jesus was there but not with them as He had been for three and a half years. And the Jews were looking to exterminate them, so the movement of Christianity would be shut down.

They were not witnessing or talking to people about the resurrection of Jesus, even though they are blown away by the miraculous events. There were no crusades or tents set up. The area was completely silent except for what Jesus was doing, which the Scriptures have veiled from our deeper understanding.

Acts 1:1–3 (ESV): In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

During the forty days Jesus periodically appears to the apostles. They were no longer following Jesus around as they had done during His earthly ministry. They are now staring at each other wondering what to do. The Holy Spirit is now speaking to them and this is new too. They had heard Jesus teach on the Holy Spirit (John 16) but, up until this time they had not experienced the Holy Spirit communicating with them.

This all started in the upper room when Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit (John 20). Now as believers, they can hear the Holy Spirit and Acts 1:1-3 tells us this is so.

What was Jesus up to by not directly leading the disciples? Jesus, had already begun to release the work of leading the church to the Holy Spirit. These awesome men of God were attempting to figure this out. Maybe they theologically understood, but not practically…just like us.

There was a transition happening, maybe uncomfortable at first for these men, from the physical ministry of Jesus, to the spiritual ministry through the Holy Spirit.

They longed deeply to walk with Jesus and were probably unable to understand why Jesus didn’t pick-up right where He left off before He was arrested.

You could imagine their thoughts, “Now, walking with Jesus could be even more powerful! Now, this whole region can see Jesus alive and well.” You could almost hear their rationale. The only problem is that Jesus had other plans, and those plans did not include His disciples following Him around anymore.

Fellowship was going to be totally different according to the plans of Jesus. Fellowship was now going to be with the Holy Spirit and ministry was not “watch what Jesus does” anymore, now it is “watch what we do in the name of Jesus.”

Pastor, what is so vital about all of this? What does this have to do with evangelism at all? I am so glad you asked. The answer…. The hand off.

God, thank You for sending Jesus to save us from our sin. Thank You that He died, was buried and then He powerfully rose again. Without You Jesus we all would be lost forever. Because of Your great love, mercy and grace has touched all who ask you for forgiveness. Thank You Jesus!

Devotions for God’s Family – 3

Acts 1:5 “…but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

I have described to you the hand off from Jesus to the Holy Spirit. Jesus moved aside from these men and placed His Spirit where He used to be.

The evangelism that was about to take place (Acts 1) was a Holy Spirit driven evangelism conducted by people who waited upon and pursued the presence of the Holy Spirit.

You might even say that the evangelism in the early church was “presence” driven. Where at one time the presence of the Son of God, teaching and preaching, doing miracles and encouraging people was now replaced with the presence of the Holy Spirit working powerfully in saints to accomplish even more than Jesus was able to do in person.

John 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Listen friend, the presence of the Holy Spirit must be pursued, and He must be honored.

If you were to follow Jesus in His earthly ministry and partner with Him in telling the gospel story back then, as though you were transported in time and space, wouldn’t that be spectacular?

Now if you were in sin and were hiding in your sin, do you know what Jesus would do? Prior to ministering together Jesus would talk to you about it so that your ministry with Him would be fruitful. He would do this because He loves you and others that you and He would be ministering too.

That aspect of care is not unique to Jesus; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have this depth of care. The Holy Spirit has taken the role of leadership assigned to Him by Jesus and He functions the same way. Where Jesus would maybe pull you aside and ask about your heart in a one-on-one conversation, now the responsibility rests with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit wouldn’t pull you to the side, He will speak directly to you in your heart. He lives in you and He will speak from in you into you. He manifests conviction of righteousness. (John 16:10)

He speaks in you, not really to you. He speaks in you all the time. He doesn’t speak at you, He is in you. (John 14:17) The Word of God is His language and your heart and mind are His chalk board. Jesus would have spoken to you about an issue, now the Holy Spirit speaks in you.  

Evangelism comes from this same operation. The strategy of evangelizing and the method of evangelizing is not nearly as important as we make it to be. Our ability to hear the Holy Spirit is paramount. When walking with Jesus the disciples followed where He went.

The Holy Spirit is exactly like this. He will tell you where to go and who to speak to the same way that Jesus walked and talked with people.

The problem? We have reduced evangelism to a function of the church that no one wants to do because we have removed the Holy Spirit from His leadership role. In our attempt to grow and build we have put structure and strategy together that have not come from the Holy Spirit. So we put format and structure in front of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

To bypass the presence of the Holy Spirit is to bypass the power of God. Because the power of God comes from the awareness of the presence of God. 

God does not want us to operate powerlessly. We go out passionately to fulfill the great commission, but often we go powerlessly. The presence of God is our main and chief pursuit. The presence of God in the form of the Holy Spirit is the only One who can direct our efforts. He has the strategy and the success.

Pastor what are you saying? Get into the presence of the Holy Spirit, be filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus said to do in Acts chapter 1. Pursuing the presence of the Holy Spirit will undoubtedly proceed right into the power of the Holy Spirit upon you.

There is no doubt that when the power of the Holy Spirit is in you, evangelism will become something entirely different than our perception of evangelism today.

Take a close look at these awesome men of God, who followed Jesus around and saw what He did, they saw Jesus come back to life. They knew He was the Messiah. And even with this first- hand knowledge they didn’t do anything with it. They held up in a room filled with fear and when they did come out, they went fishing.

But when they were filled with power after a period of time of waiting and praying…look out world!

This is why I don’t want you to go out witnessing. Nor do I want you pursuing the power of God. I believe we need to take another step back and simply and passionately pursue the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Look out world!

Holy Spirit, we acknowledge You as the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ. WE honor You and want to pursue You in a way that You want to be pursued. Help us find You in the midst of our dogma and religion. Fall fresh on us in a mighty way so that we can feel and know that You are in us and around us. We confess that You are God and we will follow Your lead in evangelism in our day. Thank You Jesus for making all of this possible through Your blood being spilled for us.

Devotions for God’s Family – 4

Hold up Pastor! You said you were talking about evangelism, and now you seem to be talking about weird stuff like the presence of God and the Holy Ghost. How are these two connected?

Isn’t evangelism simply you motivating us to get out of our recliners and hand out a track or invite someone to church once in a while? Well, let’s learn from the Master.

Let’s take a look at the progression in the ministry of Jesus.

First off, would you consider Jesus to be someone who talked about the kingdom of God? If so, that would make Him someone who evangelized. He is certainly one who evangelized and an evangelist, the Evangelist.

Luke 3:23 (ESV): “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age…”

So, Jesus had a beginning to His ministry on earth. What was that beginning? There was a physical and spiritual dimension to that beginning.

Matthew 3:16 (ESV): “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him…”

Jesus was baptized in water to begin earthly ministry and this was His choice to do so. That is the physical dimension, He willingly went under water. And then as He came out of the water the Holy Spirit rested on Him.

And then we read for the first time in scripture this description of Jesus…      

Luke 4:1–2 (ESV): And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.

The phrase “led by the Spirit”, did you see that?

From this point forward everywhere Jesus went and everything that Jesus did was Holy Ghost led. That means that even the evangelism was Holy Ghost led.

If led by the Holy Spirit, then He is in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Evangelism is presence driven, that means that it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that drives evangelism in the person and/or church, this was so for Jesus and it must be so for you and me.

When I say presence driven, that means something different than what we have become accustomed to understand. We often operate in ministry with the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. We believe He exists and we believe that the Bible speaks of Him. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and we wonder if we will ever see the power of God manifest in our day and we wonder what it must have been like in the New Testament days to see mighty works of God flowing out upon people.

We rest in the knowledge of God content that the knowledge of God is what moves the heart of God to act in mighty ways. The knowledge of God won’t move a single thing! The knowledge of God puts us in right alignment to experience the presence and power of God. Don’t ever be satisfied with simply the knowledge of God.

The disciples had first hand knowledge of Jesus raised from the dead! Yet, it didn’t move them to the miraculous power of God in faith. Knowledge can’t and won’t produce mighty works!

Only the presence of God will do the mighty works of God.

Jesus came to earth as a man. As a man, in order for the Father to work through Jesus in power Jesus had to (like every human being on earth who wants to be used of God) be filled with the Holy Spirit so that the presence of the Holy Spirit could work through Him into others.

It could be argued that Jesus knew everything, I mean everything there was to know, past, present and future and yet ministry wouldn’t and couldn’t start until the presence of the Holy Spirit fell upon Jesus at the Jordan river.

Knowledge is not presence. Knowledge of the presence isn’t presence.

I have knowledge of oxygen and what it will do for me, it is life giving. I have knowledge of the presence of oxygen all around me, friend. Oxygen is everywhere and accessible and will be very life giving. Knowledge is not life giving. I have breathed it in! And now I have breath in my lungs! Right here, right now! Constantly breathing in.

Maybe I am accustomed to weakness and bulging eyes, maybe I am accustomed to gasping for air. Maybe breathing deep and being full of energy is scary to me. But no matter what I think, the fact remains that God made me to breathe deep and to be full of energy. In need the presence of oxygen more than the knowledge of it.

Evangelism is born from the presence of God not the knowledge of the presence of God.

Is that hard to understand? Well, God goes beyond your understanding, to be filled with His power and His love, you must approach Him by faith. By faith invite the Holy Spirit to fill you. Please don’t assume that means more knowledge. The presence of the Holy Spirit will give you strength and power for life, by God’s design. He will give you boldness to stand up and walk as a child of God, like nothing on earth can do.

Right now, not a second later, don’t wait a second more.

Knowledge is so important, presence takes over where knowledge leaves off. Without knowledge you wouldn’t know that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And with out presence, knowledge would leave us empty and rigid.

Mighty God, holy God, merciful God, kind and loving God, we approach You this morning with a hunger to be in Your presence. We know You want to be with us more than we want to be with You. We confess we don’t know why You would want to be with us, and we don’t know about our worth and value except what Jesus showed us when He went to the cross for us. We receive You, fill us with Your presence and make us forever aware of Your presence Holy Spirit. Let the love of God and the care of the Father be seen by all who would look into us and see why we are the way we are. Praise You Jesus for making this possible through Your blood being shed on the cross for us.    

Blessings

Pastor D