"Rise Up, O Men of God"

"I am," said Jesus, "and all of you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven." MARK 14:62

Although the fullness of God's Kingdom is yet to come, there is a sense in which the King is reigning now, and we can say with the utmost certainty, "Our God reigns!"

A lady once wrote to me indicating her intention to withdraw from life and await the day when God would finally establish His kingdom in power and glory on the earth. I replied with a parody of a hymn that apparently got her thinking. She wrote back in a few weeks and said, "You were right. I was waiting for God, but now I realize He is waiting for me." She ended her letter with the words of the hymn:

Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of kings.

This must indicate our line of action. Yes, of course, the final ushering of God's kingdom is yet to take place, but that does not mean that He is taking a backseat in the world's affairs. God wants to reign through us!

We need not wait for the day when spectacularly the great God of the universe demonstrates His imperial power. As He sounds forth a rallying cry, even through these pages, respond to Him, I urge you, with a fresh consecration of purpose, and dedicate yourself to letting Him reign through you.

Prayer:
God, I give myself wholly to You, not only just to live in me, but to reign through me. I gladly submit my whole being to You today. Live and reign in me. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

By Selwyn Hughes

Pray to the LORD of the Harvest

Matthew 9:37-38 Then he (Jesus) said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Hey everyone. As most of you know we will have our 2nd REVIVE gathering this Thursday night. I am so excited to see what God does. As I am in the middle of study and preparation for this Thursday I felt moved to share something with you.

God has showed me over and over the last several months that the fields are white unto harvest but believers are too occupied with things of the world to be a laborer in the field and to go out and do what it takes to gather in the harvest.

The Revive team is asking God to equip us and equip the ladies that we serve through Revive and that we will be so in love with Jesus and so moved by His word that we will go out and gather in the harvest no matter the cost. We NEED laborers in the field!

Our teams heart cry to the LORD of the Harvest is to send out laborers into His harvest.Will you earnestly pray with us over this matter?

Brittnie

Christ's Love for Us

The Intensity of Christ’s Love and the Intentionality of His Death
March 19, 2008
By John Piper

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love. “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was. Consider these five ways of seeing Christ’s intentionality in dying for us.

First, look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52-54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’ death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the Word of God.

A second way this intentionality is seen is in the repeated expressions to go to Jerusalem—into the very jaws of the lion.

Taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” (Mark 10:32-34)

Jesus had one all-controlling goal: to die according the Scriptures. He knew when the time was near and set his face like flint: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

A third way that we see the intentionality of Jesus to suffer for us is in the words he spoke in the mouth of Isaiah the prophet:

I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)

I have to work hard in my imagination to keep before me what iron will this required. Humans recoil from suffering. We recoil a hundred times more from suffering that is caused by unjust, ugly, sniveling, low-down, arrogant people. At every moment of pain and indignity, Jesus chose not to do what would have been immediately just. He gave his back to the smiter. He gave his cheek to slapping. He gave his beard to plucking. He offered his face to spitting. And he was doing it for the very ones causing the pain.

A fourth way we see the intentionality of Jesus’ suffering is in the way Peter explains how this was possible. He said, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

The way Jesus handled the injustice of it all was not by saying, “Injustice doesn’t matter,” but by entrusting his cause to “him who judges justly.” God would see that justice is done. That was not Jesus’ calling at Calvary. (Nor is it our highest calling now. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord, Romans 12:19.)

The fifth and perhaps the clearest statement that Jesus makes about his own intentionality to die is in John 10:17-18:

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

Jesus’ point in these words is that he is acting completely voluntarily. He is under no constraint from any mere human. Circumstances have not overtaken him. He is not being swept along in the injustice of the moment. He is in control.

Therefore, when John says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16), we should feel the intensity of his love for us to the degree that we see his intentionality to suffer and die. I pray that you will feel it profoundly. And may that profound experience of being loved by Christ have this effect on you:

The love of Christ controls us . . . . He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Sunday's Coming!!

Let These Results of the Resurrection of Jesus Revive Your Passion for His Supremacy Over All Things

March 12, 2008
By John Piper

As Easter approaches, let’s stir up our thankfulness and joy and admiration and amazement at what the resurrection of Jesus means for us. The curse of our fallen nature is that what once thrilled us becomes ordinary. The reality hasn’t changed. We have changed.

This is why the Bible exists. Peter says of his two letters that they are written to “stir up” or “arouse” by means of “reminder.”

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. (2 Peter 3:1)

So let’s stir up our sincere minds by way of reminder.

What has God done in raising Jesus from the dead? Here are a few biblical answers.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, death will never have any dominion over him again.

Romans 6:9: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”

Acts 13:34: “He raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption.”

Because of the resurrection, Jesus intercedes for us in heaven before God.

Romans 8:34: “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning and guarantee of our resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

2 Corinthians 4:14: “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”

2 Corinthians 4:14: “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”

We were raised with Jesus so that our true life is hidden now in him.

Ephesians 2:6: “[God] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 3:1-4: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. . . . Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we are born again to a living hope.

1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we now enjoy his personal fellowship with us always.

Matthew 28:20: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, he has a name above every name and every knee will bow to him.

Philippians 2:9-10: “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

The resurrection of Jesus means that Jesus kept his word.

Matthew 17:22: “Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’”

The resurrection of Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures and the promises of God.

1 Corinthians 15:4: “He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Acts 13:32-33: “We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.”

Because Jesus was raised, he has received the promise of the Spirit and poured out the Spirit on us.

Acts 2:33: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

Because Jesus is raised, he can still heal the way he did on earth.

Acts 4:10: “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.”

Because of the resurrection, he gives repentance and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 5:31: “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Because Jesus was raised, he is now appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.

Acts 10:42: “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”

Acts 17:31: “He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

God secured our justification by raising Jesus from the dead.

Romans 4:25: “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

The risen Christ takes the place for us that the law once had so that we can bear fruit for God.

Romans 7:4: “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”

Because of Jesus’ resurrection, he now has the glory for which we were made. Our ultimate destiny is to see him as he is.

1 Peter 1:21: “God . . . raised him from the dead and gave him glory.”

John 17:5, 24: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. . . . Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

May the risen Lord Jesus himself arouse your sincere mind to new depths of worship and allegiance and joy.

Pastor John

The CALL ALABAMA

I can't help but post this...since my heart is set on Revival. I know that is why the LORD has called me to Alabama. So, this article from Lou Engle really struck me.


A Message From Lou Engle

For three years, the Lord has led me to pray for Alabama.

The burden was born out of a dream in which I was digging for the wells of revival, and I hit an obstruction. When I dug around the obstruction, I found bones. Inscribed on the bones was "Alabama." I knew from the dream that Alabama was key to revival in America, however there were things hidden that needed to be prayed through for the breakthrough to come.

The bones of Alabama, I believe, speak of the historic calling on the state as a forerunner for justice in America. They also speak of hidden issues that must be repented of that affect the whole nation. It is my conviction that TheCall in Montgomery is pivotal for a great turning in America.

In solemn assembly before the Lord, we are calling for repentance for the shedding of the innocent blood of African American slaves, racism (Montgomery – the first capital of the confederate states), lynching, and the killing of innocent children and many others who laid down their lives for Civil Rights. But we also believe that those who suffer the most and can still forgive receive redemptive authority to lead the nation.

We believe a new company of African American voices, birthed out of fasting and prayer, will lead the parade of history in bringing freedom from poverty in the inner cities and lead the way to the ending of abortion and movements of adoption in this nation.

On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., we want to cry out to God for a new prophetic mantle to fall on Alabama and its people to bring forth spiritual awakening and justice and, in particular, proclaim with the clearest voice, “Let my people go!"

I believe that out of this gathering, a human life amendment could be brought forth, much like the voting amendment that was born out of the civil rights movement in 1964. From this gathering, we will call on God for fasting and prayer movements to explode through the inner cities of Alabama and our nation that can alone shift atmospheres and restore city streets with dwellings.

So, it is to Montgomery we go on April 5th declaring, “We have a dream!” We have a dream that abortion can end. We have a dream for reformation in our cities, and we have a dream that National Revival can be ignited that will transform a nation.

For TheCall,

Lou Engle