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"World
Vision for the Poor -- Both Conservative Orthodox and Hot Pentecostal"
February 24, 2005
From the time Evangelist Bob
Pierce founded the Christian relief organization World Vision, it has been
successful in reaching many of the world's most disadvantaged people groups,
especially children. Christianity Today's Tim Stafford explores the make-up of
this non-denominational agency that has so effectively incorporated workers and
supporters from conservative Orthodox Christians to on-fire Pentecostals, and
aligned them in one vision -- to reach out to the poor and those in need, in
Jesus' name.
Tim Stafford
Christianity Today
http://www.christianitytoday.com/
ct/2005/003/18.50.html
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February 24, 2005
"Walking in Eternal Life"
by Francis Frangipane
Frangipane Ministries, Inc.
www.frangipane.org
comments@frangipane.org
 God's
end-time people will "end time." What I mean is that, as we near the end of the
age, we will increasingly learn how to walk in eternal life, abiding above the boundaries,
constraints, and the pressures of the realm of time. We'll see what's coming and
either avoid it or announce it, but we won't be limited by it.
Jesus taught that those who come to Him "have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Right
now, we have eternal life in our spirits. Yet, how do we access the timeless place
of God's presence? This is a serious question, for we have become more "time conscious"
than "God conscious." Schedules, meetings, appointments, and deadlines all fuel
our anxieties and compel us to live horizontally, instead of vertically in the Presence
of God.
HOW DO WE ACCESS THE TIMELESS PLACE
OF GOD'S PRESENCE?
The Lord seeks to deliver us from anxiety, but that can only happen if we truly
learn to walk in the Holy Spirit. The sad fact is, most Christians fail to spend
time with the Holy Spirit. We pray, even calling upon the Lord, but few are they
who have cultivated moment by moment openness to the Spirit of God.
"But, when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide
you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever
He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."
John 16:13 NASB
The Holy Spirit "will guide . . . He will speak . . . He will disclose" to us what
we otherwise could never know or attain. To guide, speak, and reveal are forms of
communication. Clearly, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to talk to us.
"THE SPIRIT OF REALITY"
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. There are issues in our hearts that the
Holy Spirit alone can reveal and remove. Listen to Him; like Christ, He does not
come to condemn but to save. His voice is Salvation speaking to us.
Jeremiah said that the heart is deceitful above all things. We cannot objectively
know ourselves. Yet the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, sees and understands
our ways. Trust Him, He cannot be deceived. Indeed, the ancient Greeks used the
same word for truth as they did for "reality." Thus, we could accurately say that
the Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of Reality." He shows us the reality of our need
and the reality of God's answer. To hear Him is to hear the voice of eternal life.
Jesus lived in union with the Holy Spirit continually. The miracles He accomplished
came through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit He saw the things
the Father was doing; He heard the words the Father was speaking.
Every strategy we may come up with pales in
comparison to seeing God and doing what God does, and hearing God and saying what
God says. You see, Jesus lived in the dimension of time, but was not limited by
it. His consciousness was always aware of the eternal realm.
Even the urgent news of Lazarus' illness did not make Jesus move anxiously. As right
as it seemed to rush to Lazarus' aid, Jesus was aware of another reality. He was
conscious of the heavenly Father. Because He knew that the Father was about to raise
Lazarus from the dead, He lived without hand-wringing or being driven by anxious
thoughts or pressures.
Oh, how we need to walk in the Spirit today. In every situation, we would consciously
be aware of God's involvement in our lives!
HE INVITES US TO ABIDE WITH HIM!
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9 NASB
God has a system of thoughts and ways that are totally on another plane, yet He
invites us to abide with Him!
Beloved, we are not mere human beings. We each are a temple for the Holy Spirit,
but we must cultivate a listening heart if we will do the things that God is doing.
A Christian is not just someone living out a natural life, hoping that God will
bless him. No, God has more for us than that. Jesus set the standard, and He's given
us the Holy Spirit so we can follow Him.
SPIRIT-FILLED?
When we are born again, we begin a journey with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives
us gifts to help us grow; He baptizes us in power to increase our effectiveness.
All of this is to lead us until we are actually filled with the Holy Spirit, where
we think and act like Jesus.
Many of us think we are already filled with the Spirit, but we are not. We have
three quarts of self and one quart of the Holy Spirit, and we think we have a gallon
of God. There is still too much self ruling in our hearts.
In America, some pastors identify themselves
as being Spirit-filled and say they pastor Spirit-filled churches. To be perfectly
candid, I have never attended a church that is truly Spirit-filled. In the Book
of Acts, we see a picture of a Spirit-filled church. The leaders met daily for prayer,
and on the way to prayer, their shadows healed the sick! Their offerings went to
feed the poor. Out of their sense of love and community, they held all things in
common. In that atmosphere, the church grew exponentially.
I know some are thinking, "My church is getting close to this example." Oh, I forgot
to mention, in a Spirit-filled church, if you lied, you died (see Acts).
You see, let's not accept that we are further along spiritually than we are. God
desires to take us further, deeper into eternal life. Having a spiritual gift doesn't
mean that you are filled with the Holy Spirit; being born again does not mean you
are also Spirit-filled. I have never met a truly spiritually mature person who was
anxious; no one who is nervous about time can truly be led by the Holy Spirit.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
In our quest to walk in eternal life, we must allow the Holy Spirit to excavate
our hearts of self. If we want to tune into the God channel, we must tune out the
"self channel," where the anxieties, fears, and sins exist.
I want a heart that can hear God; I want perception that can see God. We are too
much like the world. How do we break this? Spend time with the Holy Spirit. Ask
Him to talk to your heart and then write down what you feel He is saying. If we
want more of God, we must cultivate the awareness of His Presence, and especially
listen for His voice.
We must also take faith and believe that the Spirit is here to help. Zechariah 4:6
teaches us that it's not by our might or power, but it is by the Spirit of the Lord
that we succeed. Acts 2:17 tells us that in the last days God seeks to pour out
His Spirit upon all flesh. I love the words "pour out." We must stop thinking "thimble"
and think Niagara Falls!
It's time to step out of the box called "time," and live in the Spirit. I'm not
suggesting that you become unreliable or are late for your appointments, but that
you give yourself to learning how to hear God's voice and how to live in His presence.
If you are one of God's end-time elect, then it's time to rise above the pressures
of time and walk in the eternal life of God.
by Francis Frangipane
Frangipane Ministries, Inc.
www.frangipane.org
comments@frangipane.org
A service of Frangipane Ministries, Inc.
Copyright (c) 2005
All rights reserved.
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