A fine greeting to all reading this!! :)
Ok, so in this post i want to look at how and why we should hunger for God's presence. It has become a thirst and desire for many churches worldwide, and through the presence of God he is doing amazing things! Stories of healing, and miracles left right and centre, truly amazing to see what God can do!!
- Who is the Holy Spirit?
Well, looking biblically, the word talks about the Holy Spirit as being God. There is the trinity; The Father, The Son and the Spirit, three-in-one all powerful creator God. This in itself is hard to get our heads around! Imagining how God can be three beings in one being. For me, anything like this which makes my mind want to explode is actually a CAUSE for worship, and not a stumbling block. If we could perceive how God works, and who he is... he would not be God!
- Why should we seek the Holy Spirit?
The anointing of God comes from the Holy Spirit, and this is what breeds a fruitful ministry. In Galatians 5:22-23 it says this:
'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law'
Notice, these are the fruits 'of the Spirit'. The word fruitful is by definition 'causing or assisting in prolific growth' I love that word prolific, it's a powerful word! If we want to see our friends and family and cities turning to God's throne of grace then we need to seek the spirit so we can bear this fruit, so that God's goodness will shine from us. Not in our strength, but in our weakness his strength is made perfect.
- How do we welcome the presence of God?
Quite simply, ask for it, and seek it! God is so ready to pour out the fullness of his love and affection upon us, and he rejoices when we seek him whole heartedly. Take the words from Matthew 7: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. The word always speaks of God's promises, this is a promise and if we ask he will fulfil this promise. God also promises us 'where 2 or more are gathered, there my presence will be also' So gather together to seek after God's spirit together.
- What if i'm afraid?
My honest answer is that having a fear of God's presence is natural, and actually a right thing to fear. God in all his perfection, glory and righteousness makes us aware of how sinful and shameful our lives are. However, from this state of conviction and awareness of our wrongdoing we realise what is cost the Father to give his one and only, sinless, perfect son to take our punishment. Think of Isaiah who was so overwhelmed in God's presence that he cried "Here i am! Send Me!" This wasn't a British.. well..... go on then.. It was a cry from deep in his heart. When we encounter the presence of God we are left with the same reaction of utmost devotion and love for our saviour, and it is this which promotes fruitful mission.
Hope this has been helpful!
Any questions please send me an email at:
r i c h . k . w a r d @ g m a i l . c o m
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Monday, 23 January 2012
Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!
Happy new year to everyone reading this!! :)
Ok, so in the summer at Mobilise and Newday, we learned a song written by Simon Brading named Christus Victor. Personally, i loved it! Took me a couple of times through to start understanding why we were singing what we were singing (which will be explained later), but on the whole i thought it was excellent. What i am about to write is in reference with the pre-chorus which goes like this:
"Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
O, death, where's your sting?
Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
You're not singing anymore!"
The song is effectively about the victory of Christ on the cross, hence the name 'Christus Victor' which is latin for Christ is victorious. The verses state some amazing truth about what Jesus achieved on the cross, talking about the victory he won for us. The chorus speaks of our God being unstoppable, and undefeated.
I have had conversations with people about this song and they have been very varied, and very interesting. Trying to canvas a 'common' opinion seems hard as everyone has their say, so it is in light of these discussions i am wishing to write this post. I have hard people saying that the difficulty with this is that it feels like we are corporately 'mocking' Satan, telling him he is not singing anymore, and there are a couple of comments i would like to add with regards to this
- First of all, this is a take on the popular football chant, which to be honest is overused and sang in every football stadium around the country, but i'm not here to talk about that!! So when Simon introduced it at Mobilise he talked about this, and actually said this was like a victory cry for God's people as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus has won the day in a similar (but more important, more meaningful, and more impressive) way to when our football team are beating their opponent.
- The most important thing of weighing up whether to use a song in a time of worship or not is obviously its foundation on biblical truth. One of the things that people have said to me as previously mentioned is that this could be dangerous as it can come across that we are mocking Satan. Biblically, we have every reason to be careful where this is concerned, if i can draw your attention to Jude 1:9 it says this:
'But when the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said "The Lord rebuke you!"'
The first thing that we notice here is that Michael is an archangel, a being of God's creation and perfection, a creature of eternity and God's dwelling. Then see how he 'did not himself dare' to bring a taunt towards the devil, i believe that since this was the attitude of an angel we should adhere to that and leave the rebuking up to Jesus himself! But by all means we can ask for it and believe it in his name.
- One more thing to add is that the pre-chorus actually has the reference to a verse from 1 Corinthians 15:55 which reads
'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'
So the lyrics definitely have biblical credibility. So! i hear you ask...... who are we singing to?
Well, the obvious answer would be death. Looking at the whole passage in 1 Corinthians, we can deduce that the particular comment was a mocking taunt to the power of death. My personal view on what the bible means by 'fear of death' is that actually that is what drives all of our fear, fear which we need no longer suffer under as Jesus took all of our burdens, fear, shame, guilt, heaviness upon himself; so that we could live a life of fullness and freedom by his spirit. Thinking of Paul's famous words in Romans 8:36 onwards, he talks about how we shall no longer fear death as nothing can tear us from the love of Christ.
I believe it is in rebuking our fears and failures that we should be singing those words 'Who are you?' with the attitude of 'you have no right to oppose me as i am a child of the King!' As we declare them to be singing against our struggles, to be singing against uncertainty, and against fear that holds us back from God's fullness.
Hope this has been helpful
Rich
Ok, so in the summer at Mobilise and Newday, we learned a song written by Simon Brading named Christus Victor. Personally, i loved it! Took me a couple of times through to start understanding why we were singing what we were singing (which will be explained later), but on the whole i thought it was excellent. What i am about to write is in reference with the pre-chorus which goes like this:
"Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
O, death, where's your sting?
Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
You're not singing anymore!"
The song is effectively about the victory of Christ on the cross, hence the name 'Christus Victor' which is latin for Christ is victorious. The verses state some amazing truth about what Jesus achieved on the cross, talking about the victory he won for us. The chorus speaks of our God being unstoppable, and undefeated.
I have had conversations with people about this song and they have been very varied, and very interesting. Trying to canvas a 'common' opinion seems hard as everyone has their say, so it is in light of these discussions i am wishing to write this post. I have hard people saying that the difficulty with this is that it feels like we are corporately 'mocking' Satan, telling him he is not singing anymore, and there are a couple of comments i would like to add with regards to this
- First of all, this is a take on the popular football chant, which to be honest is overused and sang in every football stadium around the country, but i'm not here to talk about that!! So when Simon introduced it at Mobilise he talked about this, and actually said this was like a victory cry for God's people as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus has won the day in a similar (but more important, more meaningful, and more impressive) way to when our football team are beating their opponent.
- The most important thing of weighing up whether to use a song in a time of worship or not is obviously its foundation on biblical truth. One of the things that people have said to me as previously mentioned is that this could be dangerous as it can come across that we are mocking Satan. Biblically, we have every reason to be careful where this is concerned, if i can draw your attention to Jude 1:9 it says this:
'But when the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said "The Lord rebuke you!"'
The first thing that we notice here is that Michael is an archangel, a being of God's creation and perfection, a creature of eternity and God's dwelling. Then see how he 'did not himself dare' to bring a taunt towards the devil, i believe that since this was the attitude of an angel we should adhere to that and leave the rebuking up to Jesus himself! But by all means we can ask for it and believe it in his name.
- One more thing to add is that the pre-chorus actually has the reference to a verse from 1 Corinthians 15:55 which reads
'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'
So the lyrics definitely have biblical credibility. So! i hear you ask...... who are we singing to?
Well, the obvious answer would be death. Looking at the whole passage in 1 Corinthians, we can deduce that the particular comment was a mocking taunt to the power of death. My personal view on what the bible means by 'fear of death' is that actually that is what drives all of our fear, fear which we need no longer suffer under as Jesus took all of our burdens, fear, shame, guilt, heaviness upon himself; so that we could live a life of fullness and freedom by his spirit. Thinking of Paul's famous words in Romans 8:36 onwards, he talks about how we shall no longer fear death as nothing can tear us from the love of Christ.
I believe it is in rebuking our fears and failures that we should be singing those words 'Who are you?' with the attitude of 'you have no right to oppose me as i am a child of the King!' As we declare them to be singing against our struggles, to be singing against uncertainty, and against fear that holds us back from God's fullness.
Hope this has been helpful
Rich
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