Reaching Canada – Touching Lives
We say Y.E.S. to God
Totally Yielded
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13
Fully Engaged
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10
A Living Sacrifice
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Hebrews 12:1
We now have our self re-oriented for Reaching Canada and Touching Lives.
With Moses we have asked, “Lord, show us your glory.” We have tarried in His presence until His glory is revealed.
We now have our center of gravity for Reaching Canada and Touching Lives.
With Nicodemus we have learned that our eyes and ears of flesh cannot hear and see kingdom of God things and that we must be born again and have new eyes and ears of the Spirit.
We now have the spiritual balance necessary for Reaching Canada and Touching Lives.
God is in conversation with every human being.
A conversation through dreams. Daniel 2:1
In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
A Conversation through experiences. Daniel 3:24-25
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to hiscounselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.
A conversation through the working of the Spirit. King Belshazzar (Nebuchanezzar’s Son) Daniel 5:5
5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.
Like Daniel, we must have Spirit ears to hear the conversation between God and people.
In Greek mythology the gods and man could not talk to each other because they lived in different spheres. Hermes was the middleman between the gods and humans between heaven and earth.
I find it funny that from Greek mythology we get our word for properly handling the Bible: Hermeneutics.
Today I am suggesting that, like Daniel, we must live hermeneutic lives if we are to join in Reaching Canada and Touching Lives.
We must help people make sense of the conversation God is having with them!
Now let’s join the conversation that Philip had with the Ethiopian Eunich.
Acts 8:26-40
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south[d] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.
1. Have Spirit direction on which conversation to enter.
27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
2. Do not be afraid of differences such as power, ethnicity, gender, education, wealth.
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”
3. Go over and ask to join the conversation!!!
30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said,“How can I, unless someone guides me?”
4. Accept their invitation to join the conversation.
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
5. Open your mouth and talk.
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”[e] 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
6. Stay in conversation through steps of commitment.
39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
7. Be ready for God to posture you for the next conversation.
ALWAYS BE LOOKING WITH THE EYES OF THE SPIRIT AND LISTENING WITH THE EARS OF THE SPIRIT FOR THE GOD CONVERSATION!!!