What a great day today! This morning we heard from Tony who gave us some great insights into communion and encouraged us to press in and take hold of the promises that communion represent. We are to expect the annointing to flow when we take communion.

In the evening, Pauline reminded us that we need to guard our hearts against spiritual amnesia. God does turn away from us if we forget Him. If we do forget Him, He will remind us of His power, which may hurt. Remind yourself that you are a sinner, saved by grace and come regularly to His word, fellowship with other believers and worship God.

The Holy Spirit: A person, a presence, a purpose, a power, a counsellor, a comforter, a teacher, a guide. A person of the trinity with feelings. Not a force. Able to be released through us to demonstrate the power of God. Bringing the Kingdom into the world.
These were some of the ways that Alan described the Holy Spirit as we gained a greater understanding of the Holy Spirit in this morning’s service.
In Gen 1:1-2, 7 the Holy Spirit hovered over the earth and dwelt in man before the fall. After the fall, the spirit didn’t dwell in man anymore, he was separated. The spirit of God would come down upon the people and they would then do what God required with the spirit upon them. Under the new covenant however, the spirit is BACK! The spirit is back dwelling in us because of Jesus! (John 14:17) He has a presence in us.
The Holy Spirit has a purpose. He is a counsellor and comforter. He comes alongside us to guide us, teach us, convict us of sin (John 16:7-8), testify to Christ (John 15:26) and sanctify us.
The Holy Spirit is power. Jesus promised us this power (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8, 1 Cor 2:4-5) and our lives need to be powerful demonstrations of this power. Our challenge is to see the release of the power flow through us. We are to be continually filled with the Spirit. Stay in prayer, fellowship and reading the Word. Then, and only then, will we see the power of the Holy Spirit released into our world.

In the evening service, Carol gave us a great message on perseverance and overcoming difficulties. (Phil 3:12-16, Heb 5:12-6:1) We need to continually try to train ourselves and press on to maturity. Ask yourself: Are you putting into practice the lessons you learnt from last time? The best way to learn is to practice - and you can do this by teaching and sharing with others what you know. You need to step out of the comfort zone, take some risks and put into action the things you have learnt. If it doesn’t go so well, that’s ok, just keep persevering at it.
You need to accept the responsibility that maturity brings and make sure that what you do in your life matches what you say. (Eph 4:1-16)

Step out in confidence as you put all you’ve learnt into practice for Him. Be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you are equipped to do this!

Have fun this week. Press into God, persevere with and practice what you’ve learnt, overflow with the spirit and minister to others from the overflow!

Get a life! Coming to Long Gully soon!

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When:Friday 7.30pm

Where:At Noel’s house.

Contact the church for further details.

What a great morning this morning!
Sue brought us an excellent communion message and talked about how we have a choice. We can choose to live for God, have an attitude that’s right with God and believe that God is who He says He is, or we can choose not to. ABC: Attitude, Belief, Choice. Choose life and the life that God has for you.
After this, Alan spoke on grace and how to increase the outworking of grace in your life. In Acts 4:33, Acts 6:8 and Rom 12:6, we read how grace was upon the believers, enabling them to do what God wanted.
In Acts 2:42, we read of 4 keys to seeing this grace upon our lives.
These are:

• The Word. Read the Bible everyday, study God’s commands.
• Fellowship - build relationships with other people, not just see them at church
• Communion
• Prayer

However another major key is Holiness. Don’t confuse holiness with rules. That is not holiness, but rather legalism. One aspect of holiness is integrity. Integrity is doing what you say you will do. God is holy because He does what He says He will do. Another aspect of Holiness is vision and desire. The people of Israel worshipped a golden calf because they had no vision. If you don’t have a vision, you won’t see the outworking of holiness. Have a vision for the things of God.
1 Cor 14:1 says to eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit. Desire to see the outworking of those gifts in your life.
Vision plus Desire equals Passion
Your life will be set apart for whatever your passion is. Holiness is being set apart. Become passionate about God and the things of God, just like God is passionate about us. Set yourself apart for God and the things He wants you to do. Visualise what He wants you to do, desire to walk with Him and your passion will increase. As you do that, you’ll see the grace of God, or power, work through your life more.
Holiness: Ignite the passion and see the grace of God work through your life. You make the choice.

In the evening message, we read in Romans 4:17 how God calls things that are not as though they were. God speaks and so it is.
In Numbers 22-23, we read about Balaam. Balaam can not speak curses over Israel He could only speak blessing. We can speak blessings over ourselves and have the authority to break curses (Prov 26:2). Put a spiritual mirror up and reflect the curses.
In Numbers 25, we read how the women seduced the Israelite men away from God. Numbers 31: 8, 10-16 shows us that Balaam actually subtly seduced the Israelite men away from God. He couldn’t speak curses over them, so he devised another plan.
Nothing can reverse the blessing of God, but we can choose not to live under it.
We are going to see the blessing and power poured out in our church like never before. Obstacles are going to be removed. God is going to come through with a big snow plough, removing everything in the way. Things that have stood in he way or held us back are going to be removed. God is removing them. The Holy Spirit will be ruthless, getting rid of everything that will stand in the way of blessing. Don’t mess with God, turn your heart and attitude to God, not just your lips.

Have a good week! Choose life, ignite the passion in your life and speak blessing over your life and that of others.

Today Tony explored the story of the Prodigal son in Luke 15. The story can be explained using three R’s - Rebellion, Repentance and Restoration. In the beginning we see how the son wanted to try out what was in the world - he wanted to do his own thing. He rebelled against his father and God. Just like the son, we can make a choice to be selfish and rebel against God. The son made a choice to be a wasteful squanderer. Rebellion gets you into the pit and if you sow selfishness, you will reap selfishness.
In Luke 15:17, the son reaches the lowest point, which becomes his turning point. In Luke 15:18, we see the son repent. He says he will go, say sorry and obey God. The responsibility of repentance is our own. Often when we get into strife, we blame others, but we need to take responsibility for our own actions.
After the son returned to his father, he was restored. He wasn’t allowed to be a servant because the father wanted a son - just like God wants us to be His sons. The son was fully restored. This story serves as a reminder to come to the place where we let go and let God take control again. If you rebel, repent and you will be restored.

In the evening, Alan expanded on some of our recent SOAP readings. In Exodus 17:1-7, we read about Moses, who strikes the rock with his staff of authority, and water comes forth.
In Numbers 20:1-13, Moses again brings forth water from the rock by striking the rock. However, God had commanded Moses to speak to the rock. After this, God said that Moses and Aaron would not lead the people in to the promised land. He had dishonoured God by not doing exactly what He wanted.
God wanted to take Moses on to a new level of authority. Instead of striking, he was to speak.
Moses went back to striking as that’s what he’d done before. God did it that way before, so we assume He’ll do it that way again. But that’s not necessarily what will happen.
Moses had actually reached his ceiling. He couldn’t go any higher than he was at the moment. It was a ceiling on what God would do through him. Moses needed to take another step, but was unable to. In Numbers 27:12-23, Moses transfers authority to Joshua. Joshua was ready to move to the next level and was able to go where Moses couldn’t go.
Just like Joshua, we need to be ready to move to the next level. We need to be ready to move to a place of authority where our words affect the environment we live in. Through the cross, we have this authority.

We need to stand in that authority. Don’t set your own ceiling. Don’t stay where you are now. Move with God. If God says speak to the rock, speak to it. Don’t be afraid to speak out and use the authority He has given you.
Keep growing and let God set your ceiling.

Have a great week and continue to pray for your REAP targets and continue in your SOAP readings!