Alan continued the Kingdom Living series this week with a great message on walking in Holy Spirit Power.
As we recapped from last week, we were reminded that the Kingdom of God is not of this world (John 8:23, John 18:36). The Kingdom of God is a spiritual Kingdom, it’s another dimension and it’s not a political kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is in the power of God (dunamis - power).
Many people teach without the power.
In 1 Cor 4:4-5, we see that Paul preached in a demonstration of power.
We need to avoid the character v power trap.

In Eph 4:29-30, we are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit. So how does our sin affect God? The sin that grieves the Holy Spirit is an issue of character. The sins that grieve the Holy Spirit and the heart of God include bitterness, gossip, tearing one another down, offenses and disunity.
1 Thes 5:19 says that we are not to quench the flow of the spirit, which talks about the power. We need to be open to the flow of the Holy Spirit and not quench it. This is just as bad as grieving the Holy Spirit through gossip, bitterness etc.
The purpose of the power: Mark 16:15-20, Luke 24:47, Acts 1:4-8.
Jesus told them to stay until they had been clothed with power, not until they had sorted out their character issues.
The power of the Holy Spirit is primarily to equip the church to fulfil the great commission. It is meant to equip us so that we can take the power of God “out there”.
In Acts 4:29-31, they prayed for boldness, then asked Him to stretch out His hands and perform signs and wonders.
The anointing of the Spirit is a key to personal growth.
In 1 Sam 10:6,9-10 we read that the power of God came upon Him and He was changed into a different person. The influence of the Holy Spirit can come in and change people’s lives.
In 2 Cor 3:17-18, we read that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and that we are to be continually transformed into His likeness. Sometimes we shut out the Spirit and stay with what we know, rather than move with the Spirit. We put ourselves into bondage because we stay with what we know. As we look into the mirror, we are to see the glory of God in an increasing amount. As we grow and change, we change, by the Holy Spirit, from the inside out.
The transformation into the image of Christ, includes Christian character. (Gal 5 22:23 - The fruit of the spirit). We must remember that Christ was not a meek and mild person, but somebody who can grieve over His people, a strong person with integrity and character, somebody who gets upset with money changers in the temple AND somebody who walked in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. He did miracles, healed blind people, deaf people, made the lame walk. He had, and used the gifts of the Spirit found in 1 Cor 12:7-11.
If you want to live out a Godly life, you need to be growing in both power and character.
If you want to walk in power, you will offend people. Integrity on its own won’t cut it. We need to be dangerous.

Remember that we are to be continually changed into the likeness of Jesus. Spend time with Him and allow the Holy Spirit to change you, but remember to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Have a great week this week!

After a great time of worship, Alan brought us a great communion message based around Rom 4:22-5:8.

Our Kingdom series continued with a message entitled Kingdom mentality from Dennis, our guest speaker for the day.
Dennis took us to Esther, and illustrated some Kingdom principles from this book.
Ahasuerus was a king and had a party. He wanted his wife brought to him (Esther 1:11-12), but she wouldn’t come. So he decided to banish her from the Kingdom. A Kingdom’s existence hinges on obedience to the King. Esther then became queen and she was a Jew. The King, not knowing that she was a Jew, was persuaded to issue a decree to kill all the Jews by Haman. Once a decree is issued by the King, it cannot be reversed. Esther then went and appealed to the King on behalf of the Jews after Mordecai told her that she had been appointed for such a time as this. The King then killed Haman, the enemy of the Jews. The way of escape for the Jews came through Esther. Although the King had made a decree to kill all the Jews which couldn’t be reversed, He gave Esther the power to make another decree so that they would have some hope. The second decree allowed them to take up their weapons and fight for their lives.

In this story, the names of the people can represent the Kingdom of God. The king is God. Mordecai represents God’s people. Haman is satan, Esther is Jesus. The first queen of the king is Adam and Eve.
Mankind under satan is set to be killed and destroyed and satan has that authority - God has decreed that. But God made another decree - Jesus. Jesus took back the signet ring when he hung on the cross. He then took authority over the property and gave it to us, like Esther gave it to Mordecai. But the first decree has to stand, and even though the second decree came, we have to fight. We have the weapons to fight (Holy Spirit, Word, Fellowship) but we have to use them.
We have to have obedience to be part of God’s Kingdom. We learn obedience through the things that we suffer. Jesus died so that we were free to be obedient. We are free from the disobedience that Adam enslaved us to.
In Rom 6:15-18 it says that we are set free from being slaves to sin and instead enslaved to Jesus.

We need to use those weapons we have to keep us walking in obedience, keep us free from sin. We fight with the knowledge and authority of Jesus. In Deut 30:19 we are told to choose life, obedience and blessing. We get the option to choose. Choose Life.

Have a great week this week. Choose to press into God this week. Choose to be a blessing to others and choose to take the Kingdom of God to the areas that you influence.

Today we had an awesome time in the presence of God as we came together and put aside our agendas and spent time praising God. As God moved, the order of service was thrown out and we moved with God.
After a great communion message from Carol, Alan continued our series on Kingdom Living and talked about embracing the supernatural.

The Kingdom of God is not of this world - it is primarily a supernatural Kingdom. (John 18:36). In Mat 11:11, we read that any of us who are in the Kingdom of God are greater than John the Baptist, because we’ve moved into the new covenant, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the supernatural.

In Mat 3:11, 13-14 John tells Jesus that he needed the baptism that Jesus could give to Him because he knew that Jesus was going to be baptising in something greater (the Holy Spirit) than what he was currently baptising in.

The ultimate purpose of Christ’s coming was not salvation. It was that each believer might be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in supernatural power to bring the influence of the Kingdom of God to the world. The higher, or ultimate purpose, was to bring people into a greater dimension of the Kingdom.

When Paul is talking to the Corinthians in 1 Cor 4:14-20, Paul is talking like a father would talk to his children. God is in the process of restoring fatherhood and relationships between Christians and in the process breaking down denominational boundaries. Paul is telling the Corinthians to gather around him and do what he does. As the relationship and unity develops, the power of God will work.
Gather around people who walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul demonstrated great power in His ministry. Paul is saying look at the anointing of the Spirit, the power and walk in that. Paul says that if he is able to visit, he will come and look at the power of these teachers, not the words because the Kingdom of God is not in word, but power. We need to influence our world by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The church is in the process of moving from a denominational paradigm based around doctrine to an apostolic paradigm based around Kingdom power. Fathers with power don’t equal teachers with only words.

Lifestyle: Imitate fathers rather than ideas and doctrines. Relation rather structural.
Attitude: Humility rather than pride. Real anointing comes through humility.
Ministry: Ministry in power rather than many words.
Focus: Kingdom focus rather than a teaching focus.

While teaching is important, it is more important to have the principles right rather than the teaching doctrine absolutely nailed.
1 Cor 2:1-5 demonstrates this. Paul says that he comes not with persuasive words but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Have faith in the word of God. The power should accompany the word of God. Your faith should not be in words of men, who come and teach with good words and charisma, but have no power accompanying those words.

The Kingdom of God is primarily concerned with the supernatural, a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. Bring the power of the Spirit through you when you go and minister in the community, or go and do what God wants.

Have a great week this week. Walk in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Today we had a great time around communion as Pauline reminded us that the cross meant that our sins were paid for in full.

After our communion message, Alan talked about our church and the role our church plays in establishing the Kingdom of God. Kingdom rule is to be established through the church and the Kingdom ministry flows out of the local church. As a church we need to be fulfilling our purpose, dealing with the challenges that arise and celebrating our strengths.

The purpose of our church is encapsulated in our vision: Preaching Christ, Making Disciples, Releasing Ministry. Each of these three areas can be further broken down into three areas: Leadership Does; I do for Myself; I do for others.

For a full explanation of these, see the Vision page on our website.

We have a few new Connect groups starting this month. Connect groups are small groups enabling people in our church to connect with each other in a small group setting. Make sure you get along to a small group and get Connected!

Have a great week and be a blessing to others.