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MONDAY 30TH MAY
Acts 1.1-14
Jesus passes the baton

For three years, God, in Christ Jesus, had been ministering with power and teaching His disciples. This ministry ended on Ascension Day when Jesus was taken up into heaven. Before He left them, He gave them instructions about what they were to do next. He was passing the baton to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was to take over from Jesus in ministering to the disciples. As they had discovered, the disciples could do nothing without Jesus. They had not been able to heal a boy when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were to wait until Jesus had baptized them with the Holy Spirit. He reminded them of John the Baptist’s promise that the one coming after him would baptise with the Spirit. He told them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and that they would be His witnesses. The disciples obeyed Jesus. They did no ministry for ten days. They waited and they prayed: the whole group, including Mary the mother of Jesus and lots of women and Jesus’ own brothers. During this ten-day period they were constantly in prayer.

We are all called into one form of ministry or another, but we can learn a lesson from the disciples. Before we step out into ministry for Jesus, we need to come together and pray constantly. We need to wait until the Spirit has been sent. Then we are ready to be used by God.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for the ministry of Jesus. Thank you that when He went back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to give us power to minister. Teach us to wait and pray. Encourage us to pray together for you to keep sending your Holy Spirit so that we may receive power and to enable all the world to believe and be with you forever when you come again, through Jesus, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

TUESDAY 31st.MAY
Ephesians 1.15-23
Open our eyes to see the power available

Some men were shipwrecked off the coast of South America. They were floating in a raft. Soon their water supply ran out. After a couple of days they became terribly thirsty but they knew they couldn’t drink sea water. Then one of them, who was on the brink of fainting said, “What the heck,” and bent over the raft and gulped mouthfuls of sea water. To his utter surprise, the water was fresh! They were outside the mouth of the huge Amazon River that pushed fresh water way out to sea.

When Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father and was made Head of the Church, He filled it with His Spirit. The Church is completely filled with Jesus and His Spirit. Like the fresh Amazon water, He is around us all the time. We can drink in Jesus and His Spirit. We, as a church, are floating in this Spirit. The trouble is that even though we have heard the Gospel and have accepted Christ, we don’t realize what Jesus wants to do for us. We have to keep praying, like Paul did for the Ephesians, that God will open the eyes of our hearts and give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may see all that Jesus has available for us. Sometimes we Christians feel so weak and powerless; we never need feel like this. It is not the truth at all. The power available to us who believe is the same mighty power God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead and placed Him at His right hand with absolute power over everything.

PRAYER: Father, please give us who believe and accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Open up the eyes of our hearts that we may see all that you have available for us and the mighty power you have given us, through Jesus our risen, powerful Saviour. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 1st.JUNE
Matthew 28.16-20
The Great Commission

When Ascension Day finally arrived, Jesus gathered His disciples together on the top of a mountain. It was a wonderful experience for them. It was so good to be in His presence. They knew He was their God so they worshipped Him. They were filled with awe and wonder. They were so happy. Jesus spoke to them and said, “All authority has been given to you, therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Since then, millions have become Jesus’ disciples and Christianity has become the greatest of all world religions. We are His disciples but we haven’t finished yet! There are still so many around us who are yet to become His disciples. All around us there are thousands who do not know Him. Jesus wants us to realize that He has given us in the Church the power to make them disciples! The closer we get to Jesus in worship and prayer, the more we will realize the tremendous authority Jesus has given us. The final promise Jesus made as He was departing from earth was, “Surely I am with you always.” If we were by ourselves we would have no hope of winning those around us for Jesus, but we are not because Jesus is with us.

PRAYER: Jesus, you have given all Christians the power and authority to make more disciples for you. Please help us to use this power until all are won over to be your disciples. Amen.

THURSDAY 2nd.JUNE
ASCENSION DAY
Psalms 47 & 68
Let’s extol Jesus on His glorious Ascension

Today, as we worship our crucified, risen, ascended, glorified Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to clap our hands and extol Him who rides on the clouds. Jesus ascended with shouts of joy. On this day, as we praise and worship Him, we crown Him as our King. ‘The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now.’ We praise Him because He has power and authority over all the earth. We praise and thank Him because He loves us all so much. As He sits at the Father’s right hand, the place of highest authority and power, He never stops praying for us. His prayers are very powerful. We praise Him because on the cross He took the punishment our sins deserved. He paid the price for us and qualified us to be raised with Him to sit with Him in heavenly places for ever. We praise Him because He has made His home with us on earth. He is with us all the time. We praise Him because of all the power He has given us: power to love, power to forgive, power to heal and power to win others for Him. The secret of actually experiencing and receiving more of this power and being used mightily by Jesus is to spend more time praying and worshipping Him, both alone in our quiet time and together with other Christians. The most power has been experienced when Christians of all churches get together and praise and worship Jesus. This is happening in South America where whole cities are being won for Jesus.

PRAYER: Lord, as we remember you ascending with shouts of joy, all we want to do is praise you and exalt your glorious name. We fall down before you and worship and adore you. Jesus our Lord, we adore you so much and love you more and more. Amen.

FRIDAY 3RD JUNE
1 Peter 5
How to build a strong church

Before any church can be strong it must have strong leaders. In the church, all the leaders must have a shepherd’s heart. That means that they must have a strong love for the people in their care. They must willingly want to care for the people out of their love for them. All leaders must not lord it over their flock, but be willing to be servants. They must set a good example by their willingness to go out of their way to do things for others. God promises to reward servant leaders who dirty their hands for their flock. As well as strong leaders, a church must have submissive followers. One quality is essential for all church members – it is humility. This is because God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. We must be clothed with humility. This means in practical terms that we must look up to all people and consider them better than ourselves and forget about our own interests, but seek to do all we can to look after the interests of others. We all need to be confident and happy, not gloomy and miserable. We achieve this quite easily by ‘casting all our anxiety on Him (Jesus) because He cares for us.’ We must beware of enemy activity; of the devil prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We must resist him because we are told if we resist the devil, he will flee from us (James 4.7). This means that we must always be self-controlled and alert so the enemy can’t take us in by surprise. We are promised that if we follow these instructions, God will keep us strong.

PRAYER: Father, we pray for our church. Give our leaders shepherd’s hearts with a desire to love and serve their flocks. Clothe us all with humility and teach us to cast all our anxieties on you. Keep us safe from the devil’s attempts to destroy us. Make us strong, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

SATURDAY 4TH.JUNE
John 17.1-11
Jesus glorified

Jesus was glorified because He was Jesus, the divine Son of God, but He was also glorified because He succeeded in achieving a very important goal. The goal He achieved was to give eternal life to us all. He achieved this goal magnificently by dying on the cross to take all our sins away and qualify us for heaven. He achieved this goal by making it possible for us all to have a personal relationship with God. Because of what Jesus did we can know Him in a very personal way and we can know His Father. To know Jesus and to know the Father is to be united to them with strong cords of love. When we are united with God, when we know God, we have eternal life. His life flows through the union between Himself and us and His life can never end – alleluia!

The night before Jesus died He prayed the prayer that we read in John 17. His main request in this prayer is that we all be united to Himself and His Father. He prayed firstly for His disciples and later in the prayer for all of us who would later follow Him because of the ministry of the disciples. Jesus knew He had won the disciples over (except Judas). They had totally surrendered to Him. He had revealed the Father to them and had linked them to God. Let’s pray that all who read these notes may totally surrender their lives to God, trust in Jesus’ saving power and be made one with Jesus and one with the Father, being certain of eternal life.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that the prayer you prayed in John 17 has been answered so many times and that millions of people are in heaven sharing eternal life with you. Help us to share the Good News and reveal the truth so that all the people we Christians share with may be united to you and the Father and receive eternal life. Amen.

SUNDAY 5TH.JUNE
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Last week we saw how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all come to make a home in our hearts. We were reminded how Jesus death on the cross so purified our hearts that we were made worthy for God to live in us. Today we see how we can be made ready for God to fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the hundred and twenty of His disciples that as John baptized with water. They would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was going to do this for them. This was the gift the Father had promised. They had already received the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them after He had risen from the dead. What they would receive, when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, was POWER. This power would make them very effective witnesses and enable them to do the mighty things, for God, that Jesus promised they would do.

Jesus gave them strict instructions not to do anything but to wait. When they waited they devoted themselves to pray together. The bible says that they came together ‘with one accord.’ They were absolutely unified. After ten days of waiting, God kept His promises. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit in a mighty powerful way.

We will be thinking about that next week when we celebrate Pentecost.

Let’s try to follow their example. Let’s spend more time this week in prayer. Let’s try to get together with others and pray. Pray that God will pour out His Holy Spirit power on us all.

PRAYER:Father we thank you that after the first disciples spent ten days in prayer you poured out your Holy Spirit upon them and gave them power to be very strong witnesses. Inspire us to spend more time in prayer and then give us a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit. Through Jesus our glorified Lord and Saviour. Amen.