Lena's Dscipleship Journalin' to Acts 19 Today

We all have to repent and be baptized. Water baptism is the sign of repentance. Water baptism is all about the washing away of sins and the witness of an outward confession of a new covenant we’ve decided to live out in front of witnesses. It like stating our vow at an altar of sacrifice and making ourselves accountable to the witnesses to live out the vow forever.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is what every believer needs to be filled full of God! Without Him we are nothing, absolutely nothing! Trying to walk out our commission with God without the help of His indwelling and the overflow of Hid Spirit is ludicrous.
Right now God is inviting all believers everywhere, no matter their race, color, or denomination to receive Him on the inside once again. It is such an imperative action of our faith. It is amazingly important to the furtherance of God’s kingdom in each of us. The Lord is so graciously inviting His church to the wedding table. He serves wine there without measure, there’s no compulsion, but those who desire to can have all they want. Those who come to the feast will have been the ones who desired to partake of all He offered.
Eating and drinking of spiritual life is essential to spirit life and breath! We cannot live this spirit led life without Him. It is just whacky to think we can. Pride must bow its knee to the thought of being fully dependant upon God in order to live for Him! Man cannot live by bread alone, but he does live, by every word that comes out of the mouth of God!
Churches are going to enter into great struggles if they refuse His spirit in this day. It will not be the devil that brings all of the struggle. It will be the flesh, for the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with man’s flesh nature. Man’s flesh nature must be put away, put to death, that Christ may be alive in that same man. There is only one way to emanate that much of God!
We could say we are dead to sin and trespasses, but to stay alive in Christ and stay dead to self seeking, we have to be full of Him daily. Full of His Spirit! We are deceived into thinking that we can live according to and walk in the Spirit without being filled to overflowing! The enemy would love to have us think we can, and live as though we can. He has laid a deceptive cloak over the eyes of non-believers – I’m speaking of people inside of the church that have refused Him! These are not equally yoked together with Him and with His will. Somewhere they don’t believe in Him; at least not to the measure of His call.
Have you ever been beat up by circumstances or situations? It may be you have left doors opened to enemy forces to take from you what is yours in God. What belongs to us in God is ours through the carrying out of obedient actions. As we obey, we have rights in Christ to keep what has been given us. We can lose what was given us if we do not protect and guard it. How valuable it is to us is gauged by our actions of obedience. If we refuse God we accept the devil’s work. We cannot have little bits of both! If we are on this journey for life then our lives take us form one obedient action to another!
We are constantly asking God how we can further give him glory inside of demonstrate able and purposeful obedient action. These sons of Sceva were not sons of God. Sons of God obey God, and know God, personally. It is known that one knows God personally and has grown into son ship, by how much that son obeys. Love actually increases with more obedient actions. They got their “butts” kicked when they tried to resist evil with evil. These were trying to do what they’d seen others do without having an obedient heart to God. They were uncommitted and unsubmitted. Unsubmitted and uncommitted people do not have their heads covered protecting them from evil spirit’s power in the earth.
When the Bible says it is good to have your head covered, it means it is good to have a “hard hat” on for the sake of the onslaught in the spirit realm. The only way to have one’s head covered is to be in a personal relationship with Christ Jesus as Lord. Not only accepting Him as your Savior, but receiving Him as your Lord. These boys may have asked Jesus into their hearts, but when it came time to attach themselves to a body of believers and to be accountable to somone with the intent of being changed, when it came time to be rubbed by members of the body of Christ, for purposeful character development, when it came time for them to do what someone else told them to do. (Like read your daily bread or go to church meetings, etc) they were their own persons and absent with excuse! Lots of self preserving excuses.
Don’t wonder anymore. This IS why people run away with their “pants down” so to speak. This IS why their Christianity has no validation or backup. An independent spirit opposes the spirit and power of Christ in us. There is NO victory in independence. It will lead to physical and eternal death.
Has your witness of Him changed lives to the extent of stirring up the enemy’s camp? We were praying for Columbia this week. The church there has stirred up the enemy’s camp on many an occasion. They saved people who were drug lords. That changed a few things, one thing was that the god of mammon could no longer have his way, being served by people there.
This is a god we American’s can so easily serve. We must remember our jobs are opportunities given us by God to be a witness, to save some souls. As we trust God for our finances, always putting Him first, using the tithe and our commitment to our regular assembly meetings, assigned us by God. Those that we choose to attend rather than working at the appointed times of unified accountable fellowship. This is how we’ll save people out of the enemy’s hands and tear down the powerful god of mammon in our own lives. It has to start personally first. We take him down by not giving him worship, in the form of time and first place and prioritization.