Let God take you where you've never been!

Jer 33:3 Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. ^NKJV

Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand). ^AMP

According to this verse, how will God answer our prayers?

By showing us something! Not merely answering us by telling us something but answering us by a making known of His deeds by doing!

What kind of things will God show us? great and mighty things, which you do not know.

Great things! Mighty things!

Things that we do not yet know - the word means to know experientially or relationally. Not just a head knowledge. God can show us things that so far we have had no experience of! We may know them in our heads but not yet seen or experienced them! Do we want that??

What an invitation God is giving us!!

Four pillars

In looking unto God and Christ in the promise, let the eye of faith be directed especially to these four attributes & perfections of God:

1) The freeness of His grace in making them,

2) The absoluteness of His power to effect them,

3) The unchangeableness of His counsel not to revoke, disannul the least iota of them,

4) The greatness of His wisdom to perform all which He has spoken in the best season & joint of time.

These are four pillars upon which faith may safely lean and which the strength of the most violent temptations can never shake much less overturn as Samson did the pillars of the house against which he leaned (Jud 16:30).

William Spurstowe, The Wells of Salvation Opened (1655)

Where we should be.

Just finishing off my sermon for Sunday morning - speaking on the Power gifts of the Holy Spirit. See my part of concluding notes below:

Gal 3:5 ⁵Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith….^ESV

Therefore, the One who is constantly supplying the Spirit to you in bountiful measure, and constantly working miracles among you, by means of law works is He doing these things, or by means of the message which proclaims faith? Wuest

God was sending a constant supply of His Spirit to the church, an everflowing torrent of His fullness being poured out upon His bride! A constant working & operation of miracles amongst them! Ongoing, not hit and miss but constant! God working in and amongst them! What was the basis for this happening? Faith!

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I have to take a long hard look at this - are we as a church like this? If not, why not? We know something of the moving of the Holy Spirit but where is the bountiful measure of His power & presence? Where is the constant working of miracles? O Lord, I see in your Word what we could be like and I see what we are like - there’s a discrepancy! I can’t point the finger at others in the church; I have to examine my own walk with God and my own heart. Lord, where I need to change, help me to change & give me the grace & guts to follow thru’ with the changes You highlight.

This isn’t just summat I’m praying for now as I write this but something I need to pray into, seek after and pursue. 1 Cor 14:1 ¹Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. ^ESV

Guidance

Ps 25:4-5 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. ^ESV

Here I am wanting God's guidance. What guarantee have I that He will lead & guide me? He is the the God of my salvation. Having saved & purchased me, He will surely guide me - even me - v8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

This also calls for humility - v9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

Fear - v11 Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.

Intimacy - v14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

The New Covenant Norm!

Acts 10:47 "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" ^ESV

We read in Acts 9:42 that many in Joppa were saved when they heard of the healing of Dorcas - And it became known throughout all Joppa , and many believed in the Lord. They were saved. We also read that when Peter went to see Cornelius that he took some of the new believers with him - 10:23 The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. But then notice what he said in v47 - "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" Who is the “we” Peter is referring to? Obviously it means Peter himself but also the brothers from Joppa. Peter was baptised in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and the new believers from Joppa had also been filled with the Spirit! We don't read when it happened but here we see it implied that it had happened!

It is the New Testament/New Covenant norm for Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit and that with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues!

Note also that Peter took new, Spirit-filled Christians with him on this new venture. He wasn't waiting for them to reach a certain stage of growth - i.e 5 years down the line - but this was one of the ways of growing them - getting them involved.