MONDAY 17th. MAY
Acts 2: 1-21
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
The Day of Pentecost is a very important day of the church year as on that day we remember the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on the Church. We often call it the birthday of the Church because when the Spirit fell on the remnant of Jesus’ followers, they were given new life. They were utterly transformed.
Jesus had told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to stay there and pray until they had received the promise of the Father, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. They would have power to tell the world all that Jesus had done to set everyone free.
Whenever God moves in power there are visible and audible signs to demonstrate that the Lord, Himself, is interacting with men. On the day of Pentecost there were tongues of fire over each believer’s head, there was the sound of rushing mighty wind and then the disciples burst out into speaking languages they had never learnt as the Spirit gave them the new words to say.
With these signs came a more tremendous inner change and transformation and also an indescribable joy and inner peace. Bubbling over with this joy, this small band of semi-educated people spoke with such power that thousands of men and women turned their lives back to God and the Christian Church burst into the world.
Today many of us have had very similar experiences of the Holy Spirit. He is moving with power so let’s all continue to pray and invite the Lord to give us more of His Spirit so we can be a part of turning the whole world back to God.
PRAYER: Through Jesus your Son, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as you did on the infant church on theDay of Pentecost. Give us each a sign of that inner joy and immense peace, so we can be used by you to bring many back into your fold. Amen.
TUESDAY 18th. MAY
Psalm 104
Lord send your Spirit - Renew the face of the earth
At a funeral service a visitor to our Church said something like this, “I can sense something wonderful about your church - the Holy Spirit is here”. Yes, we were very blessed at St Faiths because the Holy Spirit wass very active in our Church.
Psalm 104 says that when God takes back His Spirit, everything dies. The life goes out. This does happen in many churches. When Christians stop obeying God, when they go against His word in the Bible, very soon God withdraws His Spirit from them. The Bible says (in Acts 5:3 2) of the Holy Spirit, “The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him”. Psalm 104 goes on to say that when God sends His Spirit, “they are created and God renews the face of the earth”!
When the Church and its leaders begin to obey God, when they put their faith and trust in what Jesus did for them by dying on the cross, when they repent of their sins and turn fully to God, God sends down His Holy Spirit once again.
People who have been dead in their sins are made alive by Jesus. They become new creations. With the Holy Spirit, God gives us His grace. By His grace people are saved and filled with the new life of God (Read Ephesians 2:1-8).
When this happens the Bible comes alive and we really enjoy reading it. Church seems to come alive. Dull material becomes exciting and we know we are in the living presence of God. We look forward to coming to Church and wish the services would go longer. We taste and see how really good the Lord is.
PRAYER: Lord God, we want to come alive. We repent of our disobedience and sin which has caused you to withdraw your Spirit from us. Send forth your Spirit. Cleanse us of sin and recreate us. Give us an abundance of your new life. Make our whole church come alive, through our Life Giver. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 19th. MAY
Romans 8:14-17
Those lead by the Spirit of God are Sons of God!
When God gives His Holy Spirit to each of us, a most wonderful miracle takes place - we become sons and daughters of God. This happens when we hear the word of truth, the Good News of our salvation. When we put all our faith and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to take away all our sins, then God marks us with the seal of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). We become new people. We are born again. This time we are born not of natural ascent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:13).
When we receive the Spirit God gives us, we receive Christ Jesus into our hearts. As we receive Christ we are given the right and the power to become God’s own children. Because we become children of God, we become heirs of God.
When we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, this is like a deposit which guarantees that we will be in God’s will. In God’s will we have something fantastic to inherit? It is eternal life with Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes each of God’s sons and daughters sure that when they die they will go to heaven. We often call this the assurance of our salvation.
As God’s children we have a most fantastic, most wonderful personal relationship with God! God is no large and haughty figure to be feared, but a loving Father to be loved most dearly, so we spontaneously cry out to Him, “Abba Father”, translated into everyday language, “Daddy and Dad”.
PRAYER: Daddy, Father, we love you so much. Thank you for giving us your Spirit and marking us with the seal which makes us your own dear children. Give us the assurance that you love us so much that you will never let us go, because you have given us your inherited life forever, through Jesus our Saviour and Lord. Amen.
THURSDAY 20TH MAY
Numbers 11:24-30
Holy Spirit - Power for Ministry
Way back in Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit of God was very active. Moses was an outstanding example of a person who was filled to overflowing with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God gave Him power and wisdom and knowledge to enable him to minister to the needs of all the people.
At first Moses was the only one who had the Spirit. Everyone came to Him for help. It was too much for him, so he selected 70 helpers, gathered them together and asked God to put His Spirit on them so they could share the load of ministry with Him. God came down and put His Spirit on them all. Even two, Eldad and Medad, who were not at the meeting with the others, received the Spirit. When He came upon them they were given the power to speak God’s word and were a great help to Moses.
The Church has suffered greatly when the whole weight of the ministry is placed on the shoulders of the ordained priests and pastors. Each of us needs to pray:
PRAYER: Lord pour out your Spirit on me, give me the power to be able to speak your words and the power to help many people to come to know you and to help them when they are burdened with all sorts of problems.Give me a share of the ministry. Please reveal to me how you want me to help you. Show me my talents and empower me to use them, through Jesus our Saviour and Lord. Amen.
FRIDAY 21st. MAY
Romans 8: 18-27
The Holy Spirit enables us to Pray
When we live together in families, our family life is kept strong through good communication. When we spend time with each other, listening to each other and talking to each other, our love for each other grows very strong. To have a right relationship with our Father God and His Son, Jesus, it’s vitally important that we have constant communication with them all the time. This is called prayer!
Many of us feel prayer, that is really effective pray, a real struggle. Because we don’t feel we are getting through to God, we feel it hard to receive the help that God wants to give us. Sometimes we feel that life becomes very difficult and frustrating. We are groaning like a mother giving birth to a child. We know we are children of God, we know we will be set free by Him, yet we feel it all a big struggle.
Then the Holy Spirit comes to our aid. He makes all the difference because He gets into us and alongside us and shows us how to pray and enables us to communicate with God. When we pray in the Spirit all our frustrations and struggling cease. We find ourselves really trusting in God and receiving all the help and healing He gives us. A sense of real peace fills our hearts. It’s most wonderful indeed.
One of the special ways He helps us to pray is to give us the gift of tongues. This is speaking in a heavenly language which the Holy Spirit puts into our mouths. When we speak in tongues, we are edified (1Cor 14:4) and we sense a very real closeness with God. We know as we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying in us and we are so certain our prayers are getting through to God. He enables us to pray in the will of God, and we find more and more of our prayers are answered.
PRAYER: Jesus, often we find prayer a struggle. Please send your Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts with the precious gift of tongues to enable us to pray more effectively in the Spirit. Amen.
SATURDAY 22nd. MAY
John 14: 8-17 (25-27)
The Holy Spirit will be in you
If we love Jesus we automatically obey His commands, which is a command to love God and to love each other in the same way that God loves us. Then Jesus sends us the other helper, the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He comes to live in us, wow! What a difference, a huge difference He makes to our lives.
He is the Spirit of truth and He leads us into all truth in a fantastic way. He teaches us all things. He reminds us of everything Jesus said - in a practical way He makes the Bible really come alive for us. He also gives us a most marvellous experience of the living presence of Jesus and the Father. As Jesus said to Philip, if you have seen me you have seen the Father, so with the experience of the Holy Spirit being in our hearts we have the experience of Jesus being with us and the Father being with us. We have the experience of being one with God. No experience in the whole universe is anywhere near as good as this!
As well as enabling us to have the experience of the presence of God and the ability to pray to God, the Holy Spirit gives us the Power of God. Jesus says to us, “see the marvellous and great things I did - you will do greater things than this!!!” Jesus says, “I will do everything you ask in my name.” The Holy Spirit fills us with faith: faith to never say ‘never’ and to be able to be used by God in wonderful ways.
PRAYER: Jesus please send me the other helper, the Holy Spirit to be in me. Enable me to see you, and the Spirit to live in me. I want to be one with you and experience the fullness of your love as I pray in your name. Enable me to do the great things you promise I will be able to do. Amen.
SUNDAY 23RD.MAY
PENTECOST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Today is one of the most wonderful days In the Church’s year because we remember when God poured out His Holy Spirit on the church and brought it to life. One hundred and twenty of Jesus closest followers were gathered together to celebrate \the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Harvest Thanksgiving). They had been praying continually since the Ascension ten days before.
Six weeks before, on Easter morning Jesus had breathed on them the Holy Spirit and they had been born again of the Spirit. The power Jesus released when He died on the cross and rose again came into them and made them into new people Just before Jesus ascended into heaven He promised them Much more of the Holy Spirit. He said to them, 'John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be Baptized with the Holy Spirt ….You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses.(Acts 1:5& 8)
As they were praying Jesus kept His promise to them. He gave them the Holy Spirit. They were filled with power as the Holy Spirit came upon them. The power of the Holy Spirit gave them fantastic new life. It enabled them to be like Jesus and to do all the Mighty things that Jesus had done They had no doubt that they were filled with power from on high. They experienced God Working miraculously in their midst. They heard a sound like rushing mighty wind.
Tongues of fire rested above each one’s head and they began to speak in languages they had never learnt. All the fear that they had vanished and they went out boldly Proclaiming the Good news of Jesus: that He had died for everyone’s sins and risen Again to give them new life Because the Church was given new life on that day we often call it the Church’s birthday.
It’s the day when the Church became the body of Christ on earth. WE are the Body of Jesus. He has filled us with His Holy Spirit and has commissioned Us to carry on doing all that He did when He was on earth. Sometimes we do go wrong and grieve the Holy Spirit and He leaves us and we lose His power. To get back on track we have to repent and be cleansed by the Blood of Jesus and ask Him to fill us again with the Holy Spirit.
Let’s pray that we will receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we Celebrate the feast of Pentecost Today. May God give us miraculous signs and real Evidence that He is working powerfully in our midst. May He make us very bold in Proclaiming the Good News.
MONDAY 17th. MAY
Acts 2: 1-21
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
The Day of Pentecost is a very important day of the church year as on that day we remember the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on the Church. We often call it the birthday of the Church because when the Spirit fell on the remnant of Jesus’ followers, they were given new life. They were utterly transformed.
Jesus had told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to stay there and pray until they had received the promise of the Father, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. They would have power to tell the world all that Jesus had done to set everyone free.
Whenever God moves in power there are visible and audible signs to demonstrate that the Lord, Himself, is interacting with men. On the day of Pentecost there were tongues of fire over each believer’s head, there was the sound of rushing mighty wind and then the disciples burst out into speaking languages they had never learnt as the Spirit gave them the new words to say.
With these signs came a more tremendous inner change and transformation and also an indescribable joy and inner peace. Bubbling over with this joy, this small band of semi-educated people spoke with such power that thousands of men and women turned their lives back to God and the Christian Church burst into the world.
Today many of us have had very similar experiences of the Holy Spirit. He is moving with power so let’s all continue to pray and invite the Lord to give us more of His Spirit so we can be a part of turning the whole world back to God.
PRAYER: Through Jesus your Son, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as you did on the infant church on theDay of Pentecost. Give us each a sign of that inner joy and immense peace, so we can be used by you to bring many back into your fold. Amen.
TUESDAY 18th. MAY
Psalm 104
Lord send your Spirit - Renew the face of the earth
At a funeral service a visitor to our Church said something like this, “I can sense something wonderful about your church - the Holy Spirit is here”. Yes, we were very blessed at St Faiths because the Holy Spirit wass very active in our Church.
Psalm 104 says that when God takes back His Spirit, everything dies. The life goes out. This does happen in many churches. When Christians stop obeying God, when they go against His word in the Bible, very soon God withdraws His Spirit from them. The Bible says (in Acts 5:3 2) of the Holy Spirit, “The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him”. Psalm 104 goes on to say that when God sends His Spirit, “they are created and God renews the face of the earth”!
When the Church and its leaders begin to obey God, when they put their faith and trust in what Jesus did for them by dying on the cross, when they repent of their sins and turn fully to God, God sends down His Holy Spirit once again.
People who have been dead in their sins are made alive by Jesus. They become new creations. With the Holy Spirit, God gives us His grace. By His grace people are saved and filled with the new life of God (Read Ephesians 2:1-8).
When this happens the Bible comes alive and we really enjoy reading it. Church seems to come alive. Dull material becomes exciting and we know we are in the living presence of God. We look forward to coming to Church and wish the services would go longer. We taste and see how really good the Lord is.
PRAYER: Lord God, we want to come alive. We repent of our disobedience and sin which has caused you to withdraw your Spirit from us. Send forth your Spirit. Cleanse us of sin and recreate us. Give us an abundance of your new life. Make our whole church come alive, through our Life Giver. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 19th. MAY
Romans 8:14-17
Those lead by the Spirit of God are Sons of God!
When God gives His Holy Spirit to each of us, a most wonderful miracle takes place - we become sons and daughters of God. This happens when we hear the word of truth, the Good News of our salvation. When we put all our faith and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to take away all our sins, then God marks us with the seal of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). We become new people. We are born again. This time we are born not of natural ascent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:13).
When we receive the Spirit God gives us, we receive Christ Jesus into our hearts. As we receive Christ we are given the right and the power to become God’s own children. Because we become children of God, we become heirs of God.
When we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, this is like a deposit which guarantees that we will be in God’s will. In God’s will we have something fantastic to inherit? It is eternal life with Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes each of God’s sons and daughters sure that when they die they will go to heaven. We often call this the assurance of our salvation.
As God’s children we have a most fantastic, most wonderful personal relationship with God! God is no large and haughty figure to be feared, but a loving Father to be loved most dearly, so we spontaneously cry out to Him, “Abba Father”, translated into everyday language, “Daddy and Dad”.
PRAYER: Daddy, Father, we love you so much. Thank you for giving us your Spirit and marking us with the seal which makes us your own dear children. Give us the assurance that you love us so much that you will never let us go, because you have given us your inherited life forever, through Jesus our Saviour and Lord. Amen.
THURSDAY 20TH MAY
Numbers 11:24-30
Holy Spirit - Power for Ministry
Way back in Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit of God was very active. Moses was an outstanding example of a person who was filled to overflowing with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God gave Him power and wisdom and knowledge to enable him to minister to the needs of all the people.
At first Moses was the only one who had the Spirit. Everyone came to Him for help. It was too much for him, so he selected 70 helpers, gathered them together and asked God to put His Spirit on them so they could share the load of ministry with Him. God came down and put His Spirit on them all. Even two, Eldad and Medad, who were not at the meeting with the others, received the Spirit. When He came upon them they were given the power to speak God’s word and were a great help to Moses.
The Church has suffered greatly when the whole weight of the ministry is placed on the shoulders of the ordained priests and pastors. Each of us needs to pray:
PRAYER: Lord pour out your Spirit on me, give me the power to be able to speak your words and the power to help many people to come to know you and to help them when they are burdened with all sorts of problems.Give me a share of the ministry. Please reveal to me how you want me to help you. Show me my talents and empower me to use them, through Jesus our Saviour and Lord. Amen.
FRIDAY 21st. MAY
Romans 8: 18-27
The Holy Spirit enables us to Pray
When we live together in families, our family life is kept strong through good communication. When we spend time with each other, listening to each other and talking to each other, our love for each other grows very strong. To have a right relationship with our Father God and His Son, Jesus, it’s vitally important that we have constant communication with them all the time. This is called prayer!
Many of us feel prayer, that is really effective pray, a real struggle. Because we don’t feel we are getting through to God, we feel it hard to receive the help that God wants to give us. Sometimes we feel that life becomes very difficult and frustrating. We are groaning like a mother giving birth to a child. We know we are children of God, we know we will be set free by Him, yet we feel it all a big struggle.
Then the Holy Spirit comes to our aid. He makes all the difference because He gets into us and alongside us and shows us how to pray and enables us to communicate with God. When we pray in the Spirit all our frustrations and struggling cease. We find ourselves really trusting in God and receiving all the help and healing He gives us. A sense of real peace fills our hearts. It’s most wonderful indeed.
One of the special ways He helps us to pray is to give us the gift of tongues. This is speaking in a heavenly language which the Holy Spirit puts into our mouths. When we speak in tongues, we are edified (1Cor 14:4) and we sense a very real closeness with God. We know as we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying in us and we are so certain our prayers are getting through to God. He enables us to pray in the will of God, and we find more and more of our prayers are answered.
PRAYER: Jesus, often we find prayer a struggle. Please send your Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts with the precious gift of tongues to enable us to pray more effectively in the Spirit. Amen.
SATURDAY 22nd. MAY
John 14: 8-17 (25-27)
The Holy Spirit will be in you
If we love Jesus we automatically obey His commands, which is a command to love God and to love each other in the same way that God loves us. Then Jesus sends us the other helper, the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He comes to live in us, wow! What a difference, a huge difference He makes to our lives.
He is the Spirit of truth and He leads us into all truth in a fantastic way. He teaches us all things. He reminds us of everything Jesus said - in a practical way He makes the Bible really come alive for us. He also gives us a most marvellous experience of the living presence of Jesus and the Father. As Jesus said to Philip, if you have seen me you have seen the Father, so with the experience of the Holy Spirit being in our hearts we have the experience of Jesus being with us and the Father being with us. We have the experience of being one with God. No experience in the whole universe is anywhere near as good as this!
As well as enabling us to have the experience of the presence of God and the ability to pray to God, the Holy Spirit gives us the Power of God. Jesus says to us, “see the marvellous and great things I did - you will do greater things than this!!!” Jesus says, “I will do everything you ask in my name.” The Holy Spirit fills us with faith: faith to never say ‘never’ and to be able to be used by God in wonderful ways.
PRAYER: Jesus please send me the other helper, the Holy Spirit to be in me. Enable me to see you, and the Spirit to live in me. I want to be one with you and experience the fullness of your love as I pray in your name. Enable me to do the great things you promise I will be able to do. Amen.
SUNDAY 23RD.MAY
PENTECOST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Today is one of the most wonderful days In the Church’s year because we remember when God poured out His Holy Spirit on the church and brought it to life. One hundred and twenty of Jesus closest followers were gathered together to celebrate \the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Harvest Thanksgiving). They had been praying continually since the Ascension ten days before.
Six weeks before, on Easter morning Jesus had breathed on them the Holy Spirit and they had been born again of the Spirit. The power Jesus released when He died on the cross and rose again came into them and made them into new people Just before Jesus ascended into heaven He promised them Much more of the Holy Spirit. He said to them, 'John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be Baptized with the Holy Spirt ….You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses.(Acts 1:5& 8)
As they were praying Jesus kept His promise to them. He gave them the Holy Spirit. They were filled with power as the Holy Spirit came upon them. The power of the Holy Spirit gave them fantastic new life. It enabled them to be like Jesus and to do all the Mighty things that Jesus had done They had no doubt that they were filled with power from on high. They experienced God Working miraculously in their midst. They heard a sound like rushing mighty wind.
Tongues of fire rested above each one’s head and they began to speak in languages they had never learnt. All the fear that they had vanished and they went out boldly Proclaiming the Good news of Jesus: that He had died for everyone’s sins and risen Again to give them new life Because the Church was given new life on that day we often call it the Church’s birthday.
It’s the day when the Church became the body of Christ on earth. WE are the Body of Jesus. He has filled us with His Holy Spirit and has commissioned Us to carry on doing all that He did when He was on earth. Sometimes we do go wrong and grieve the Holy Spirit and He leaves us and we lose His power. To get back on track we have to repent and be cleansed by the Blood of Jesus and ask Him to fill us again with the Holy Spirit.
Let’s pray that we will receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we Celebrate the feast of Pentecost Today. May God give us miraculous signs and real Evidence that He is working powerfully in our midst. May He make us very bold in Proclaiming the Good News.