God wants fire in our lives! Not only for ourselves, but so that we can be effective in reaching those around us. Paul encourages Timothy to “fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.” We are called to yield to the total control of the Holy Spirit, so every emotion, thought and act is under His direction. That kind of complete spiritual control is for our benefit and in-line with God’s will.
The Bible’s big story of God’s purpose for His people is centred at various times around a significant encounter with a particular person! Both Old and New Testaments contain numerous stories of individuals having an encounter with God that changes everything! In this message we look at Jacob’s powerful encounter with the Lord (Genesis 28) and find characteristics we should expect when we meet Him ourselves. Get ready to meet Him in this way!…
Jesus has made us children of God; we have been born of God and we are adopted into His family, but like Christ we are not to grasp at this but instead be willing to serve and follow His example. When the Spirit came into us He didn’t only give us the ability to be servants but servants who are supernatural and live powerfully! We are a Supernatural Church because the people who make it up are supernatural and we will be effective in this world because we are willing to serve it, just like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is speaking all the time, and as the Supernatural Church we can hear Him speak to us. He is God and He lives in us! As we learn more about the Master’s voice, we see some of the reasons He speaks to us, the ways we can prepare ourselves in order to hear Him speak, the things He speaks to us about and what we are to do when we hear Him speak. Hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit isn’t complicated; it’s one of the most natural things that the Supernatural Church can do.
God’s “House of the Spirit” is filled with powerful, spirit-filled believers. They confess Gods Word to encourage and strengthen themselves. Filled with the Spirit they declare and share the Word of God as the church gathers, and they have words of life to share with friends and colleagues everyday. A Supernatural Church has a tremendous announcement to make to the world, that Jesus is alive!
It’s clear from reading the letters of Paul that one of his chief concerns as an apostle and spiritual father was that believers should grow into maturity, both individually and collectively. As we strive for maturity together, our unity in the Spirit is crucial. A supernatural church will exhibit supernatural unity!
We read in 1 Corinthians 12 that when the church meets together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. Everything that is done is to strengthen the body. Spiritual gifts are for every born-again believer; no one is missed out! When we share, verbally, with singing, shouting, and testimony, we strengthen the body, and one another. When we worship “extravagantly” we encourage others to do also, we encourage our children, we help others. It is the first thing we can all do to encourage and strengthen the body. We all need to be those that prepare to share; not be prepared to share but “Prepare to Share”.
John’s gospel ends with a wonderful story of hope and restoration: Jesus is alive and appears to his disciples at the Sea of Galilee, providing them with a miraculous catch of fish! Join us as see how Jesus transforms dejection and defeat into hope and wholeness, and how He offers each of us the opportunity to start a ‘New Day’ with Him…
We look at how the Church is here to represent Jesus in the world. The church is not super-spiritual, superstitious, superficial or super-serious, we are supernatural! By nature, (just like Jesus) we are heavenly, full of life, and full of the Spirit!
Because we belong to Jesus, we have been anointed and sealed by the Holy Spirit! As supernatural church, we can be certain of our identity and our inheritance because of this Divine Deposit of the Holy Spirit within us. It’s time for faith to make a drawdown on this Deposit and an investment to see God’s inheritance realised more fully!
On this Mothers’ Day, we look in Luke 11 at the account of Jesus when given the opportunity to praise and honour His own mother, considered it vital to redirect his listeners to where true blessing is to be found. In hearing the word of God and putting it into practice.
The Church Jesus is building is fundamentally ‘supernatural’: its members are “born from above” (Jn 3:7); we’re “baptised by one Spirit into one Body” (1Co 12:13) and are being “built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit: (Eph 2:22) – everything about us is supernatural! The Holy Spirit is a Wonderful Person and an Amazing Creator. And He invites us to begin living in a new dimension – life in the Spirit – characterised by dynamic lives and gatherings and an overwhelming passion to join Him in His mission to reach the world!…
For many Christians, ‘stewardship’ is associated with finances and budgets, but in this message Stephen helps us to see that stewardship is so much more than this. Stewardship includes our time, our gifting, our families and our own walk with God… stewardship is about our whole lives; it is about faithfully developing and using our gifts, talents and resources within the amount of time God has allotted to us.
God wants our homes to be places of order, goodness and power, where His Kingdom is gloriously, beautifully and uniquely expressed. Your home is where God’s heart is!
As citizens of The Strong City, our vantage point has changed. And this new vantage point brings a change of mindset as we look out into 2018 and beyond.
We look at the account of Simeon, a man who believed and eagerly awaited God’s promise, and who recognised and embraced the new thing God was doing.
God wants to pour out His Spirit on you! God doesn’t just want to refresh us when times are tough or have been difficult, He wants us to be in a place of refreshing all the time! He wants us to be those that are a well spring of life to all those around us, as we “hasten” the day of His return. The well spring of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the key to a restored Kingdom – The Kingdom of God! God wants to restore back to the original intention! The restoration of Eden in our lives – the perfect relationship, man having dominion, multiplying and subduing the earth, and unbroken fellowship with God. A Church where healing and miracles are common place, where believers are all filled with the Holy Spirit in abundant measure and move in a divine purpose and anointing. A Church that is a haven of health, full of blessing, provision and joy! The Acts Church was a model – we are destined to go beyond Acts. We are writing Acts 29! We have and are having a glimpse of the age to come. He is preparing His Church, His bride, and The established Kingdom is coming!
When God sent a great flood to the earth, He had a plan. Noah couldn’t see it physically, but he could “see” it with the eye of the spirit. We are building something wonderful and it’s important that we ‘see’ it. The good news is it is by His strength and not our own. God doesn’t want you to miss the boat, in fact He doesn’t want anyone to miss the boat! We all need to be “on board” with Him; His presence, His people, His power! Are you on board?
The prayer of King Jehoshaphat and the example given by him and his people to worship God in the face of adversity is a timely reminder for us in our day to gather ‘heavily-armed’ and ready to find our voices.
When we read the account of Jesus going to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead, we see how, on the way, a woman with internal bleeding pushed through the crowd to receive healing. Jesus met her where she was at, but remained a ‘man on a mission’ as he continued to raise the girl from the dead. Stephen picks up this story and asks us “what is our testimony – are we in mission mode?”. Our testimony is more powerful than our beliefs. Sometimes seeing is more powerful than hearing! We are Jesus to all those around us, because we are filed with His spirit. Let’s all be men and women on a mission.
As we start a new season together we are putting a focus on all that it means to serve the Lord and one another as part of the body of Christ, His Church. We want to excel in all we do together to glorify God and to win people to Christ. Today we set a biblical context for our serving, that we may consider our serving to be part of the normal Christian life.
When we look at the great commission in Matthew 28, we read how Jesus told his disciples to “GO”. The church today also shares this commission. We take a look at three steps we can take to get to the ‘go’; we first get ready, by being filled with the Holy Spirit daily. Next we get set, by being filled with love, faith, zeal and boldness. Lastly, we go! We choose to respond to the Holy Spirit by saying yes and being men and women of action.
God is calling us to be those who are preparing the way in our lives- every day! To allow us to more fully embrace the cross of Christ, we make sure that our priority is Him, His word and His people. As we do this, our valleys are filled in, our mountains flattened, and the twists and turns of our lives are straightened.
© 2023 Living Rock Church. All Rights Reserved. Legal Information.
