A message to you from Vaughan Whitehead:
We are incredibly privileged in this church.
For many years, in the realm of the spirit, there's been like a river of God's presence that's flowed through this place. And we, the people of Bay City, we're able to come along, and we're able to partake of the spiritual richness that's in that river. So we have this ability to be able to encounter the Presence of God more easily and at a deeper level than what many other Christians around the world are able to do. We're able to do this on a regular basis.
And it all comes about because men and women over the years have stood up in this place and have pursued the Presence of God. They've stood up in this place and have pursued a relationship with the Holy Spirit. They've made room for the Holy Spirit to come and fill their lives, to have His way in their lives and also to have His way in this church.
So the reason I say that, is that we need to appreciate what we have here. You know, it's important we don't take it for granted. Because if we take it for granted, we could lose it. But for that river to continue to flow, and for people to continue to partake of the riches in that river, we still need men of God who would stand up in this place, who would still pursue the Presence of God, who would still give room for the Holy Spirit, to not only have his way in their lives, but to have his way in this place.
You know, God wants to fill the ends of the earth. The bible says He inhabits the praises of his people. So when we come into this place, we want to make room for Him, by making our praise big, so he can come and inhabit that....
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"God calls us to be a people who are filled AND led by Holy Spirit
There are at least three types of experiences with Holy Spirit.
1. Salvation - a foundation - a one-off experience - where Holy Spirit fills us with everlasting life, the very nature of God [
John 3:5,6]
2. Baptism of the Holy Spirit - the building of a spiritual dwelling-place - where Holy Spirit surrounds and fills every part of us, like a sunken boat [
Acts 2:3,4]
3.
Being filled again and again and again - a continuous experience - a daily in-filling [
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (again), and they spoke the word of God with boldness.]
[Eph 5:18 ... be filled with the Holy Spirit] "It is impossible to be drunk today with yesterday's wine"
[1 Cor 14:4 He who speaks in an (unknown) tongue, in a language of Holy Spirit, charges himself up in his inner man with spiritual energy, the energy of God, which will begin to grow, and enlarge, and fill his inner vessel] - like a battery in a car - and it is something we are able to initiate! Likewise, if we don't exercise our spirit man in a daily lifestyle, we can just as easily become drained of power and go flat i.e. we become unable to fulfil the purpose for which we were designed.
"In praying in tongues, it's our spirit that prays, we begin to activate the very part of ourselves that's connected to God, and we begin to engage and express the very Presence and Nature of God..."
"If we are filled with Holy Spirit, we become a different person.... we begin to see life differently, to think about things differently, and to speak differently. We begin to engage people and approach circumstances differently... because those who are led by the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires... they take on the mind of Christ and begin to see things through God's eyes.... and they position themselves in the middle of the River of God's Blessing."
Click here to listen to the full message on audio
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So what is the significance for us today? It's relevant for us as individuals and it's also relevant for us as a church at this time. You know, Pastor Mike is talking about this is going to be a year of building. But we also know it's going to be a year of transition; there are going to be some changes taking place.
And whenever that happens, we can start to feel a little bit unsure, and a little bit uncertain. We can become a little bit worried and we can start to look around to see what's going on.
And what happens is that the environment we're in can begin to shape and influence the way we feel and influence the way that we think and influence and shape the way we act. But God calls us as His people to connect with Him and to align ourselves with Him - and then begin to shape and influence the environment outside of us. Rather than the environment around us influencing us, God calls us to shape and influence the environment around us.
So as we get into this time, a lot of us could be feeling all different sorts of mixtures of feelings. And we could be starting to think and starting to have thoughts and to make decisions of how we're going to act - and it's good to consider stuff - but we need to consider stuff when we're full with the Spirit. We need to consider stuff when....
"God, fill us.
"God, help me to have the mind of Christ.
"Help me to see the situations that are ahead of me, this year, the way that you see them. Help me not to look at them from my own fleshly eyes, and make decisions out of the flesh....
Because the results of that (making decisions out of the flesh) are not good. I step out of the river, step out of God's blessing, and then the river just flows on by me, and I miss what God's doing in this time.
So....
God wants us to be filled with his Spirit. He wants us to build a regular lifestyle where we're engaging his Spirit, we're praying, we're stirring the inner man, we're allowing him to come and fill our inner man. Because as we do that, we take on the Mind of Christ, we can see situations as God sees them. And we can act accordingly as God would call us to act.
I've got this catchphrase... I have purposed in myself that I'm going to continuously focus on what God is doing, rather than becoming pre-occupied and focused on what he isn't doing. If I focus on what he is doing, I feel excited, there is hope, there is life.
