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06 December, 2012

Oswald Chambers Quotes



Sorry guys, I have been sick with fever, sore throat and sinus infection.  I am not able to think clearly or sit and write for a long period of time. As soon as I am back on my feet, you will get one my long post. I apologize to you all.


Oswald Chambers Quotes



The agony of man's affliction is often necessary to put him into the right mood to face the fundamental things of life. The Psalmist says. Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Thy Word.



We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person...... the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.


Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditat e before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself; it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others.


We lean to our own understanding, or we bank on service and do away with prayer, and consequently by succeeding in the external we fail in the eternal, because in the eternal we succeed only by prevailing prayer.


Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us? He can't unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view concerning the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with us as intercessors.



In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that "underneath are the everlasting arms," (Deuteronomy 33:27) full of support, provision, comfort and strength.


I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.



The inattentive, slovenly way we drift into the presence of God is an indication that we are not bothering to think about Him. Whenever our Lord spoke of prayer, He said, "Ask." It is impossible to ask if you do not concentrate.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in God's hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.


Jesus Christ became Incarnate for one purpose, to make a way back to God that man might stand before Him as He was created to do, the friend and lover of God Himself.


Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love.

Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I'm not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things - things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him.


Beware of reasoning about God's Word - obey it.

All of God's people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose he has given them.

It is impossible to live the life of a disciple without definite times of secret prayer. You will find that the place to enter in is in your business, as you walk along the streets, in the ordinary ways of life, when no one dreams you are praying, and the reward comes openly, a revival here, a blessing there.

The "words" of God and the "Word" of God stand together; to separate them is to render both powerless. Any expounder of the words of God is liable to go off on a tangent if he or she does not remember this stern, undeviating standard of exposition, namely, that no individual experience is of the remotest value unless it is up to the standard of the Word of God. The Bible not only tests experience, it tests truth. The Bible tests all experience, all truth, all authority by our Lord Himself and our relationship to Him personally.


Prayer is simple, prayer is supernatural, and to anyone not related to our Lord Jesus Christ, prayer is apt to look stupid.


Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can't have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless.

One of the most subtle burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them. It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.

Perseverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen.

The real test of a saint is not one's willingness to preach the gospel, but one's willingness to do something like washing the disciples' feet - that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God.

Every now and again, Our Lord lets us see what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said - "Without Me you can do nothing." That is why the bedrock of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus.


God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute.


A saint's life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see; He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, I cannot stand any more. But God does not heed; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly.



All God's revelations are sealed to us until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. Obey God in the thing He is at present showing you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit when...five minutes of drastic obedience would make things clear as a sunbeam. We say, I suppose I shall understand these things some day. You can understand them now: it is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself till you obey what you know already. Beware of being wise and prudent.

The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights.

There is nothing to be valued more highly than to have people praying for us; God links up his power in answer to their prayers.

The way to grow in holiness is to be around people more holy than ourselves. We hear their stray comments and absorb their judgment of what's important. We listen to their prayers and find that God is bigger than we'd thought.

Jesus Christ did not say, "You will understand why war has come," but "Do not be scared, do not be put in a panic."...It is the most natural thing in the world to be scared. There is no natural heart of man or woman that is not scared by these things, and the evidence that God's grace is at work amongst us is that we do not get terrified.


Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way!

We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. He cannot bless them; it is not in His realm to do so, and those decisions are severed from reality. If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus.

When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, "Of course, He can't do anything about this." We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, "It can't be done." You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.

If I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God.


Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied talking with the tongue, unsullied thinking with the mind - every detail of the life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me.




A great many people do not pray because they do not feel any sense of need. The sign that the Holy Spirit is in us is that we realize that we are empty, not that we are full. We have a sense of absolute need. We come across people who try us, circumstances that are difficult, conditions that are perplexing, and all these things awaken a dumb sense of need, which is a sign that the Holy Spirit is there. If we are ever free from the sense of need, it is not because the Holy Spirit has satisfied us, but because we have been satisfied with as much as we have. "A man's reach should exceed his grasp." A sense of need is one of the greatest benedictions because it keeps our life rightly related to Jesus Christ.


The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts, and lack of intimacy with God's character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.

God does not have to come and tell me what I must do for Him, He brings me into a relationship with Himself where I hear His call and understand what He wants me to do, and I do it out of sheer love to Him...When people say they have had a call to foreign service, or to any particular sphere of work, they mean that their relationship to God has enabled them to realize what they can do for God.

"The Cross did not happen to Jesus: He came on purpose for it. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

"The centre of salvation is the Cross of Jesus, and the reason it is so easy to obtain salvation is because it cost God so much."

"A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says - "Oh, I can explain that away."

"Have I entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ until all that is left is the life of Christ in my flesh and blood?"

"Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven; the Holy Ghost carries on intercession in us on earth; and we the saints have to carry on intercession for all men."

"God makes us pure by His sovereign grace, but we have something to look after, this bodily life by which we come in contact with other people and with other points of view."

"Never allow anything to deflect you from insight into Jesus Christ. It is the test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you."

"A practical way of keeping personal purity unsullied in relation to other people is to say to yourself - That man, that woman, perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend, that relative, perfect in Christ Jesus!"

"The one passion of Paul's life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heart-breaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God."

"Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many are partakers of God's grace who have never seen Jesus. When once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to do."

"Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can't have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless."

"God has one destined end for mankind - holiness! His one aim is the production of saints. God is not an eternal blessing-machine for men. He did not come to save men out of pity. He came to save men because He had created them to be holy."

"Prayer is often a temptation to bank on a miracle of God instead of on a moral issue, i.e., it is much easier to ask God to do my work than it is to do it myself. Until we are disciplined properly, we will always be inclined to bank on God's miracles and refuse to do the moral thing ourselves. It is our job, and it will never be done unless we do it."

"The Cross was a superb triumph in which the foundations of hell were shaken. There is nothing more certain in Time or Eternity than what Jesus Christ did on the Cross: He switched the whole of the human race back into a right relationship with God. He made Redemption the basis of human life, that is, He made a way for every son of man to get into communion with God."

"Readiness for God means that we are ready to do the tiniest little thing or the great big thing, it makes no difference. We have no choice in what we want to do, whatever God's programme may be we are there, ready. When any duty presents itself we hear God's voice as Our Lord heard His Father's voice, and we are ready for it with all the alertness of our love for Him."

"If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to put it right; He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says - "Oh, I can explain that away." When once the light breaks and the conviction of wrong comes, be a child of the light, and confess, and God will deal with what is wrong; if you vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness."

"Paul's realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. "I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person" - no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake."


Origin: preach the Gospel & Daily Christian quote

05 December, 2012

Spurgeon - Ask, and it Shall be Given You


Morning, December 5

“Ask, and it shall be given you.”

Matthew 7:7

We know of a place in England still existing, where a dole of bread is served to every passerby who chooses to ask for it. Whoever the traveller may be, he has but to knock at the door of St. Cross Hospital, and there is the dole of bread for him. Jesus Christ so loveth sinners that he has built a St. Cross Hospital, so that whenever a sinner is hungry, he has but to knock and have his wants supplied. Nay, he has done better; he has attached to this Hospital of the Cross a bath; and whenever a soul is black and filthy, it has but to go there and be washed. The fountain is always full, always efficacious. No sinner ever went into it and found that it could not wash away his stains. Sins which were scarlet and crimson have all disappeared, and the sinner has been whiter than snow. As if this were not enough, there is attached to this Hospital of the Cross a wardrobe, and a sinner making application simply as a sinner, may be clothed from head to foot; and if he wishes to be a soldier, he may not merely have a garment for ordinary wear, but armour which shall cover him from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. If he asks for a sword, he shall have that given to him, and a shield too. Nothing that is good for him shall be denied him. He shall have spending-money so long as he lives, and he shall have an eternal heritage of glorious treasure when he enters into the joy of his Lord.
If all these things are to be had by merely knocking at mercy’s door, O my soul, knock hard this morning, and ask large things of thy generous Lord. Leave not the throne of grace till all thy wants have been spread before the Lord, and until by faith thou hast a comfortable prospect that they shall be all supplied. No bashfulness need retard when Jesus invites. No unbelief should hinder when Jesus promises. No cold-heartedness should restrain when such blessings are to be obtained.

04 December, 2012

Quotes From Leonard Ravenhill


As I was writing a post on Christian’s zeal without brokenness I came across Leonard Ravenhill’s quotes.  He is one of those timeless preachers that I like to listen to because of His intimate knowledge of and relationship with God. The funny thing is, in my post which now I feel the need to change, almost every word seems to come from Leonard’s quotes. The whole idea about shoddy Christianity as we live the christian life without truly knowing God, the zeal we possess  for His work and the so call truth that we claim we are after. Yet, we are tripping on all of it every day, we are no wiser because of our lack of brokenness, and lack of surrender
 So, I thought his quotes could be very useful to read over.  


QUOTES FROM LEONARD RAVENHILL

Nobody else can give you a clean heart but God.

There's one thing we need above everything else; it's something we don't talk about these days. We need a mighty avalanche of conviction of sin.

Are we sorry for grieving the heart of God... for denying God the right to own our personality... to own our mind... to own our thoughts... to own our emotions?  If not, we’re robbing God.

A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.

We're living in an unprecedented day (when) evil is no longer evil. We've changed the terminology-- iniquity is now infirmity; wickedness is now weakness; devilry is now deficiency.

A Roman Catholic priest startled us not very long ago by saying that for 25 years he had been sitting in the confessional, listening to the confessions of men and women. He said he heard of murders, rapes, adultery, and fornication. He met men and women who have broken every law of God and man with repetition. But never in 25 years had anyone ever confessed to be covetous. Covetousness! We wrap it up and call it ambition. We may call it business or something, but right down in the middle of those things is a rotten word called "covetousness." Paul called it idolatry!

John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets.

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!

Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church with prayer and meditation?
Someone asked me, "Do you pray for the dead?" I said, "No, I preach to them!" I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God).
We've got people today that are very happy to celebrate Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost Sunday as long as nothing happens.

If you know a church on fire for God, tell me and I'll go. A church where (after) you've gone in, you don't come out the same, believing that God is there (and) you've been in His holy presence!

God is taking His hands off of America. We've had so much light and we've rejected it.
The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.

You hear people say in church, "Lord, You're welcome!" If the Holy Ghost came to some churches, there would be a stampede to the door.

Sunday morning (attendance) shows how popular the church is; Sunday night shows how popular the preacher is; (Wednesday) prayer meeting shows how popular God is.
One good Baptist (once) said to Dr. Tozer, "If God withdrew the Holy Spirit tomorrow, my church would function just the same; we wouldn't even know He was gone."

If I don't believe the Word of God, why should you believe it? If we don't believe it, why should the world believe us?

There isn't a "Pentecostal" Church in America. If there is, tell me where it is.

In the early church, signs and wonders and miracles followed. They cast out demons, blindness and paralysis. That's normal Christianity! We're so sub-normal, if we ever became normal, they (the world) will think we're abnormal.

I'm astounded, bewildered, confused, baffled when people tell me there are 75 million people in America that are filled with the Holy Ghost and we're the most rotten nation on earth.

"Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them."

I want to see a fellowship where your burdens become mine! Your grief over your children becomes my grief! Where we really bear each other's burdens; where we love each other and let the world come and see that we are the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus who cared only to do the will of His Father.

I wish, in America, (that) we were as concerned about separation from church and sin as we are about separation between church and state. Church and sin-- it's a monstrous problem.

I'd rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church. I want to see the glory of God come so our young people don't have to be told to go (to church), (but when) they just long to get to the sanctuary where God.

Do you go to church to meet God or to hear a sermon about Him? How many come to church expecting a confrontation with Deity?

The best title of the (professing) church of God today, in my judgment, is "Unbelieving Believers."

I'm embarrassed to be a part of the (so-called) church of Jesus Christ today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a Holy God !

I'm sick to death of the so-called Christianity of our day. What's supernatural about it? When do people come out of the sanctuary awed and can't speak for an hour because God has been in glory there? Dear God, as soon as they get out, they're talking football, or sports or something or there's going to be a big sale downtown or somewhere. We are not caught up into eternity!

We speak thousands of words every day and all these words are accumulated: the good words, the bad words, the criticized words... we're so flippant with our words; we're so easy with our criticism. We stab and we injure and we hurt, and God i s going to try all my word before a thousand-million people. Every word you say is going to be played back some day. The Word of God says man shall give an account for every word that he has spoken.

Ten million years will not put a strain on the clock of eternity.
The surest thing in the world is not death and taxes, it's death and eternity. Yet, we're so unconcerned.

We are not eternity conscious enough.

I read through Hebrews 11. These staggering men and women through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtain the promises, stopped the lions; women received their dead raised to life again. All the devilish things (they endured) and not one ever had a Bible! Well, in God's Name, (what) are you and I going to do when we stand before Him?! When I get there, I'll have to face up to having the whole revelation of God.

Finney didn't have a bigger Bible; Wesley didn't have a bigger Bible, but somehow they got nearer to the heart of God. They got a revelation from God, they got convictions of the Spirit and they laid their lives on the line.

I still believe in the majesty of that eternal court. Oh the awesomeness of it... God will say to some, "Come ye blessed!" and (to) the rest, "Depart from Me !" I don't want to stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and God say to me, "I left you a book of blank checks signed in the blood of Jesus and you didn't use half of them!"

I can think of one thing when I get to the Judgment Bar and Jesus will look down and say, "I had many things to tell you but you couldn't bear them." We're too busy running our own lives: praying when you want to pray, eating what you want to eat, going where you want to go, spending what you want to spend, reading what you want to read, (Do you) call that a spiritual life? Brother, it is carnal as carnality!

I've had something burning in me for years and it burns more fiercely than ever to write this book (on the Judgment Seat of Christ). There are times (when) I can't go in my office'I'm awed with the awesomeness of God and the task that we're right on the verge of tremendous judgment unless we have a tremendous, tremendous, earth-quaking revival. I know people say, "Why don't you pray and ask God to take it (the burning) away?" I've prayed for 60 years to get it! I'm not going to ask Him to take it away! I'm asking Him to deepen it! I'm asking Him to intensify it!

Once inside eternity, we'r e going to be very embarrassed at the smallness of our faith.

What are you going to do when you get to eternity, if you can't stick in an hour with God down here? In God's name, what are you going to do in a million year s in God's presence?

The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Christ's church.
The sinner's prayer has sent more people to hell than all the taverns in America.

We've gone into other countries... have we taken the Gospel? No! We have not taken the Gospel; we're giving them American Christianity or English Christianity! Bible-Christianity: it's the most costly thing in the world; it's the most beautiful thing in the world; it's the most glorious thing in the world.

There should be a birth chamber in every church; (it) should be a room for travail.
There are three worlds looking into this meeting tonight: there is a world of angels- the Angelic world; there's a world of demons- a Satanic world, and there's the ordinary world outside, and everyone of them is going to feel the result of some decision you make tonight.

I doubt if 5% of professing Christians in America are born again--and that's true of England!

I think one of the serious breakdowns in modern evangelism is this: it has offered too much for too little. What we do mostly is offer forgiveness. We need cleansing! There is no true conversion until a man takes up his cross.

David Hume, who was a Deist, didn't believe in any inspiration or revelation or the Son of God or in the Bible. About five o'clock one morning, he was going down the street in London. He came around the corner and went straight into the hands of another man who said, "Why aren't you David Hume?"
"Yes.''
"Where are you at this early hour ?"
"I'm going to hear George Whitfield preach," replied Hume.
"You don't believe a word Whitfield preaches," said the man.
"No," Hume answered, "but he does!"
Even the Deists knew when a man is not just talking theology.
If a preacher is not known in hell, he ain't worth a hill of beans.
Every meeting, people go out damned or delivered, and a lot hangs on the
preacher.

Do you know what's wrong with modern preaching? It's missing three things: one, it has no intensity; two, it has no majesty; three, it has no eternity.

I'm convinced that the greatest thing about those Puritan preachers (is) they lived in eternity six days a week and came down to earth on the seventh! Our preachers, today, are golfing on Saturday and "goofing" ( around ) the other five days... It's a profession to most of them (when) it should be an obsession with them!

We put men into pulpits because they have degrees. But you can have 32 of them and still be frozen! "Oh," you say, "we got a new pastor. He's got a B. A." I've got a B. A. too, I'm born-again! Today, there is such an emphasis (on education) isn't there?

We're so far removed from God's way of doing things-- we think a man is a good man if he can draw a crowd these days. Do you know what Finney did? Finney preached sometimes, and the whole congregation got up and walked out on him. That's a good meeting! He sent them out horrified! I only preach for two reasons these days: either to send people out that door blazing mad at me or blazing with the peace of the Holy Ghost! That's all!

If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be any brokenness in the pew?

One of the old Puritans said that one of the agonies of hell is the Holy Ghost will be there still convicting men of sin and there will be no place to get rid of it.

Isn't it amazing that God gives breath to a man who is going to blaspheme Him all day!
The wonder of the grace of God is that God can take an unholy man out of a unholy world and make that man holy and put him back into a unholy world and keep him holy!

The world is waiting for a practical demonstration of the Gospel of the grace of God!
Three things faith does: it reckons on God; it risks with God (and) it rests in God.
Faith is taking God at His Word.

F. A. I.T. H. As children in England we used to say: Forsaking All I Take Him.
Faith that's going to be trusted is going to be tested.
I have no faith in my faith. My faith is in the faithful God.

We try and get people saved who don't even believe they are lost.
There are two kinds of people in the world-- only two kinds. Not black or white, rich or poor, but those either dead in sin or dead to sin.

I don't ask people if they're saved anymore; I look them straight in the eye and say, "Does Christ live inside you?"

Listen, if a man is real1y born-again of the Spirit of God, it is the most radical thing this side of eternity. He becomes a new creature! He has a new heart! He has a new mind!
I heard a famous preacher and he's an Englishman (say), "You came here
tonight and the Lord is merciful. He will forgive your sins tonight-- He will forgive your past sins, your sins of today, and your sins for tomorrow." (I thought) "Isn't that nice?
Can you imagine going up to a judge and the judge says, "You've been charged with stealing a lady's purse, did you steal it?"
"Yes," replies the man, "it had $100 in it."
"Are you sorry?" the judge asks.
"Yes, I'm sorry," answers the man .
"Well," the judge says, "You're forgiven. I forgive you for all the purses you've stolen in the past, all you've stolen today and all the purses you'll steal the rest of your life."
Wouldn't that be insane?!


You can go to hell at the communion table or the gambling table if Jesus hasn't saved you.

I don't want to be saved just to make it into heaven; I want to be saved from sin; I want to be a God-directed man that in the life I have, I may live for the glory of God. For the devil has enough people to give glory to his rotten name. He's got more people that has given every beat of their heart, every bit of their money, (and) every thought of their mind. Every instinct they have, they are sold out to the devil.

If you're going to a mission field-- wherever that is-- if you don't have this love, you'll break down within six months. You'll be a casualty there; you'll be a liability instead of an asset. The mission field isn't dying in want of missionaries, it needs ones with anointing; ones with a love that surpasses all things-- a selfless, an undying love, an unbreakable love.

The original missionary went out on a one-way ticket-- no return trip ! They didn't go down to Guatemala for a weekend to hand out tracts believing they did God a favor.
If you have a task without a vision, it's drudgery, but if you have a task with a vision it's a missionary.

You have no right to sin. If you have sin in your life, you've got something which is illegal in the sight of God; you're giving the devil a hand in your life.
You can't say, "Christ is all I need," until Christ is all you have.

What is Christianity? It's not giving up lousy sins;.it's not just confessing my sins. Sure I have to be cleansed before He comes (but Christianity) is inviting Jesus to be the Master and Lord of my personality. It's the life of God in the soul of man! That is the greatest definition of Christianity outside of the Bible.

Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. How many times have you stood and sang, "Take my life and let it be" and haven't given Him a scrap?


It would be a good idea, if every day this year, as far as the Lord let s us live, you asked the Lord, "Have you lived comfortable in me?" You think He is? Would you have to retrace your steps?

You can't love theology; you can't even love your Bible. You can only love a Person.
This moment can be a turning point in your life if you not only come to the cross, but get on it! Get rid of your pettiness and your jealousy! Get rid of your erratic living that you get when you come to a conference and you're down in a valley (the) next week! That shouldn't happen if Christ is indwelling in me. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever! He keeps me in peace; He keeps me in joy; He keeps me in power.

If you're going to be a true Christian, I'll tell you one thing amongst others: it'll be a lonely life. It's a narrow way and it becomes narrower and narrower and narrower.
God didn't come to be a shareholder, forget it! God doesn't want to share your life, He wants to own it! He doesn't want partnership, He wants ownership of every part of my being!

It's not simp1e being a Christian. After all, it's a majestic thing!
There's so much land ahead to be possessed! So many more revelations to be given! So many more burdens to carry! Life is short and I guess you think you have a long way to go but you don't know that.

There are progressive revelations-- if you walk with God, you'll find there are things (which) will be unveiled this coming year (that) you never thought about the past two or three or four or five years.

We've reduced God to a minimum. Most of us are trying to get to heaven with minimum spirituality. If we looked after our business like we look after our soul, we'd be bankrupt years ago! The materialism has crept in and it's blinded us! It (has become) a way of life.
All we have (today) is a sinning-repenting cycle. That is not what Jesus died for! We need to shout from the housetops and tell people everywhere today--in the church and out of it-- that Christianity is NOT a sinning religion.

A brother was telling me this week when he got baptized, it was kind of a sudden thing and he went down into the water and suddenly realized that he had his wallet in his pocket. There's not many wallets that get baptized (these days). We kind of say, "Lord, you look after our sins (and) I'll look after the rest. Every penny you earn since you've become property of Jesus Christ and you'll give an account of before God. He doesn't just take your sins; He takes your (whole) self; He takes (over) the government of your life.
All you have to do is get in a closer walk with God and you'll find your enemies are in your own church.

I want to so live that God doesn't have to have to give me one minute's notice to step out of time into eternity. Let me tell you as an old geezer that I am: there's not one thing in life worth having outside Jesus Christ. If you (can) really sing, "Thou 0 Christ is all I want," you've got it made!

God is looking for people who wi1l live wrecklessly for Him--not concerned with public opinion or preacher's opinions, but becoming a love slave of Jesus Christ.

We're not here to get to know the Word of God but to (get to) know the God of the Word.
People say, "I read my Bible everyday", but when was time last time they studied it?

You forfeit God's love as soon as you get fascinated with the world (1 John 2:15). God wants you to move into fullness.

If you want to Iive sloppy and slip, thinking your time is your own. It isn't! (Not) anymore than your breath is your own. He has to have pre-eminence in every aspect of my life.

Partial obedience is disobedience!

Good is the enemy to the best!

It's easy for you to pour contempt on your (own) pride; it's when somebody else pours contempt on your pride is when you're in trouble, isn't it? Can we put our heads up at this time and rejoice? This is a time to prove our spirituality.

It's a tragedy when you try and prove your spirituality by things you don't do rather than proving it by the things you do.

I have this in black and white-- where the Communists said in their manifesto: Christianity is certainly more powerful than anything we have. Jesus Christ can do more than Karl Marx, but the (professing) Christians don't believe it, and secondly, they won't sacrifice for it.

God has only one standard for His people-- He wants a holy people. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto saIvation.

People today want a painless Pentecost. After the apostles were filled in the upper room, they were persecuted... (and) they went to prison for preaching the Word. Immediately (when) you're filled with the Spirit, it doesn't matter what area you yield your life, the devil will fight to get back the ground he lost in your 1ife.

I'm sick to death of paper theology. I want to see it in flesh and blood! The trouble with our theology is it's all on the blackboard; our theology is all in text books. It has no life! it has no breath! It has no power! it has no authority!

I stand over a hundred of preachers and I see them shrink and I see them fall on the ground and cry because they have no prayer life. They're so busy with all the affairs of the church and they're not ministering to Him!

If you want a new personality, I'll tel1 you this: the on1y way to get it is to have a prayer life. You can't pray and be unclean; you can't pray and hold a grudge; you can't pray and have bitterness. We blame the devil so much, (but) many of us sabotage our own prayer lives.
Wouldn't be wonderful to have a few men like Paul? He said, "I'm dead!" Dead to self... dead to ambition... dead to feelings... dead to be offended... dead to be flattered... dead! Paul died to everything!

If you're not walking in holiness, you're not walking where God wants you to walk. The very nature of God can be ours.

All (of) God's great men have been very, very lonely men. The price of being a prophet is loneliness.

Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. Jesus didn't die to save us from hell. That's a fringe benefit! He died to get total occupation of us. To be holy in speech... in actions... in everything. We want to give God our lousy sins. What do you think He does with them? He wants your will... He wants that career of yours ... He wants that selfish heart not to live in selfishness.

AIl you have to do is decide to walk a 1itt1e closer to God and you'1 l be criticized more in the church than in the tavern down the street.

Holiness is not a luxury a it's a necessity. If you're not holy, you'll never make it to heaven.

If the Son of God needed the anointing, how in the world do you expect you and I will get by without it? We need that anointing everyday; we need that quickening; we need that motivating power of the Spirit strong in us everyday.

Unction. It's that mysteriousness something that God is pleased to put upon those who will travail and wait for that anointing. Without it, preaching has no power and no authority.

Ordination. What good is it? It's an abomination unless God's given it. There's only one ordination (and) that's in John 15 (verse 16, where Jesus says), I have ordained you, and if God has ordained you then all hell can't stand against you!

The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.

The cross is going to judge everything in your life-- your eating, your drinking, your sleeping, your spending, your talking. Everything is cross examined!

My goal is God Himself-- not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but God!

God wants to bring us into a glory we know nothing about.

One thing that really crushes me is when I think that America has 500 evangelists and not one revivalist; not one that can shake a city.
If Bible knowledge could change the world, we would've changed it long ago.

It's not the imitation of Christ that you and I need, it's an impartation of Christ (that we need ). Christ in you the hope of glory.

God is looking for men (who are) committed from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads.

"Christianity began in Palestine and it became a religion; it was transferred to Greece and it became a philosophy; it was transferred to Europe-- to England-- it became a cult and it was transferred to America (and) it became big business. Our young people have never seen (true) Christianity.

Why do we send people to other countries? We can't even save our own country! A little guy on T.V. says, "Give me more money, my message should go, into Japan." Why? Do you know how many murders they have in Japan for a year? Twenty! We have that many in a day in New York State! They'lI say, go back and clean your own country up!

People accept Jesus as a teacher but not as Saviour. WelI, why don't they accept His teaching? He said, "You must be born again." It's not an option.

If I'm not known in hell, I'm not worth a hill of beans much good. The demon said Jesus I know and Paul I know (Acts 19:15). (Is there any better compliment than this?)

Do you really want an intimacy with God where He shows you the world as He sees it?

The one thing I want the Lord to say to me when I die is, " You are my beloved son."
The greatest loss in life is not losing an arm or losing a friend or losing a fortune, it's losing your relationship with God.


God is going to restore the power and authority in His church starting with the pulpit (with) brokenness (and) confession. If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be brokennss in the pew?

Sources:Sermonindex.net
gospeltruth.net
 & preach-the-gospel.com

30 November, 2012

Is Your Church Rooted & Grounded in Christ ? Are You?




Ephesians 3:17 “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love

In the Ephesians’s letters we can clearly see through the eyes of Paul and his writing how the Church was flourishing in their walk as Christians. By contrast, he was constantly worrying about the Galatians to the point where in 3:1 he called them foolish Galatians. Paul was in travail for them and needed to encourage those foolish Galatians to continue in their walk until Christ was formed in them. (4:19) It is a big contrast here when we read his letters to the Ephesians Church. He was pleased with them and throughout the book of Ephesians his goal was to  reinforce and strengthen them in their steadfast walk. His prayer for them shows that he knew Christ was formed in them. Each one of them was a light in the world and together as a Church they were striving in the midst of difficulties. They had the truth in them, so the false prophets were not making a dent. They had the wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s power so they were able to test any “prophets or apostles” amongst them. 

I will not go into details with the Ephesians Church that had prompted those letters from Paul. Suffice to say if we read Revelation 2:1-7. John was in his nineties when he wrote the book of revelation while he was a prisoner on the Patmos Island. This background gives you a good idea as to how long the Church was in existence before they went cold. Revelation 2:1-7: "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.  But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

We see the Christians in Ephesus were able at one point to be pleasing to God and to Paul. According to what we read they were rooted and grounded in Him. What does it mean then to be rooted and grounded in Him? Well, there is no need for me to use my words here because Scriptures tell us what it means when we read Ephesians 3: 16-19 “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Now, isn’t that beautiful, the abundance of this life in Him and in the inner man (soul) strengthened by Him. Can you imagine what it means to comprehend the depth of the love of Christ, to see it with your spiritual eyes, and grasp it with your soul? Can you see the beauty of the riches we have in Him? Being strengthened to persevere and endure this life and to actually have Christ dwells in your heart? Can you truly grasp all of it with your soul and spirit? Do you truly possess these blessings in Him, right now as a corporate Church and also individually? 

How do we know Christ dwells in our hearts? The scriptures tell us in John 14:23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Once again we see that Christ posed some conditions here. This goes beyond saying the sinner’s prayer. We are to love Him and obey His teaching meaning His ordinances. There is no doubt here that He also manifests Himself to those who love Him and they experience His grace and oneness even at a higher level. Often we misunderstand some passages in the Scriptures that are crucial to salvation because they look like work and since salvation is by grace we dismiss them as if we can get by, without them being part of our toolkit in our walk with Him.  The misunderstanding comes mainly from lack of knowing Him first hand. So, in our toolkit, we do not have all that we need to go on being rooted, grounded and settled in Him. What we do not realize is that the work is done by the Holy Spirit. It is simply the continuance of the salvation we claim to have received, working in us by grace through faith. 

Christ promising to make His abode with the father in the heart that loves Him is more than a passing phase. This oneness and this manifestation of Him will be a lifestyle as long as we keep loving Him and keep honoring His ordinances at the highest esteem of who we are in Him. Now, we know the downside of not keeping our part of the deal. It is right there in black and white in Revelation 2: 1-7. We see the Ephesians Church  fell in love with Him at first, and now God told them they left their first love. When Christ dwells in your heart you cannot help but set your affections on things above as you practice His continual presence. All it takes on our part is to keep being committed to the faith no matter what life throws at us.  Our job is simply to keep trusting and keep focussing on Him. And yes, this is easier said than done.  Yet, He holds us responsible for it.  Even if we want to ignore thousands of verses in the bible, through our spiritual blindness, the message sent to the Ephesus Church tells us that it is hard to keep following but we have to make sure we remain steadfast.

I read a sermon online where the pastor said in regard to Revelation 2: 1-7 the message was for the Church that does not mean the salvation of the Christians there, were in danger with God. This tells me this pastor’s definition of salvation is so narrow that God cannot make a dent in him. How deep can you be inside of Satan’s belly to say something like that? This pastor could easily have said God sent the message to the building. Yes, the message was addressed to the corporate Church and I have no doubt that most of those whom Paul had written to earlier where dead or old. So the flame must have been passed on to their children and other younger generations who made up the Church. But, the Church is not the building; it is us who makes up the corporate Church. We along with our leaders (mainly the leaders) in the Church set the tone that defines our walk with Him and the direction of our worship of Him.

Why do we need to be rooted? This is simple. Christ warned us as to what happened when we are not rooted in Him, in the parable of the sower. We do not have to use our imagination to know that a tree that never takes roots eventually dies. We do not get rooted in Him by living second hand Christianity either. Without being rooted and grounded in Him there is no solid foundation. Being rooted says that we have faith and we chose to continue this path He put us on. It means we have grown pass our feel good Christianity, pass head knowledge, misguided zeal, eloquence, past our experiences and opened our lives completely to Him. We do not get rooted while walking in the flesh so being rooted in Him is also an indication we are walking in the Spirit. Once again being rooted in Him is a job done inside of us by the Holy Spirit. It is once again the continuance of the salvation we have received.

It means we are standing on the only sure thing in this world that will never let us down which is God’s Word, and it is the only foundation we recognize to build onto our Christian community. When we are rooted, grounded and settled in Him, we have become unmovable. Even when the herd goes all in one direction with no clear goal, we do not mind standing alone. Our job is to remain loyal to Him and not to flinch because He has become your source of life and wisdom. Beloved, misery loves company and people who are living shallow Christianity in their head will do everything in their powers to keep you down with them. The more people they convince simply prove to them that they are right and do not have to go deeper apprehending. But remember, comes judgement day you will be alone to answer for yourself. So chose wisely whom you want to serve, God or man.

 I hope you will be able to read this and ask yourself this: Are you truly rooted and grounded in Him.
 Please read my book Apprehended & Apprehending with the subtitle: Soaring in the wilderness with God

 If you wish to continue with this study, you can go to Amazon and get yourself a book for only $5.95. The Content of the book is worth way much more than $5.95.   But if honestly you know money is an issue for you, then please get in touch with me and I will get you a coupon from Smashwords to allow you to get yourself a copy of the book, dirt cheap. Feel free to contact me at  brokenness70 at gmail dot.com
 In His Agape Love,
M.J. Andre

I will keep silent this week-end to allow you time to read this long post.