Section: INTRODUCTION
Do I spend “enough time” alone with God?
- How do you measure it?
- If you cannot (or if you WILL NOT) settle yourself to listen to Him quietly for a moment or two or 5 minutes or 5 hours when He so desperately wants you to, then you are destined to live a life of ups and downs and not even realize that you may be missing out on such blessings from God!
-- I think of the Lord pleading with Peter, James, and John to “watch and pray” with Him – Matthew 26:38-44; Mark 14:34,37
Page 14, Spiritual Sweat, 1st sentence:
- “so we must get rid of every encumbrance, every association, habit, and tendency which impedes godliness.”
- Hebrews 12:1 – throw off EVERY hindrance!
- Don’t expect someone else to do this for you.
-- And don’t expect the other guy to throw off his own hindrances – focus on Your Lord to search YOUR heart and DO THE WORK!
- 2nd Paragraph, middle of paragraph:
-- “Intense, energetic sweat!”
-- It takes work – HARD work!
-- Toil and agony are called for if one is to be godly.
- Training can be agonizing – are you willing to agonize over what the Lord does?
Page 16, 3rd paragraph, last sentence / Page 17, 6th paragraph:
- “The Church in America needs real men, and we are the men!”
- “God is looking for a few good men!”
- Take a look at Ezekiel 22:30:
-- And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
- Take a look at Jeremiah 5:1
-- Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be [any] that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
- CHALLENGE:
-- Will I Answer that call?
--- Call to personal prayer;
--- Call to devotional prayer with my family;
--- Call to corporate prayer;
--- Call to preach the Gospel;
Page 17, Last paragraphs of COSMIC CALL
- How do I ultimately “get disciplined”?
-- Hughes asks the questions:
--- Do we have the sweat in us?
--- Will we enter the gymnasium of divine discipline?
--- Will we strip away the things that hold us back?
--- Will we discipline ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit?
- The Holy Spirit of God is a person!
-- This recurring theme continues to come up over and over – Pastor Mark mentioned how God has made it repetitive (in a good way) and I would say what I always say about His Word – when He repeats something, you should pay extra attention to it! So what of this Baptism of the Spirit?
-- What does He want to do in us? Does it matter?
-- The Spirit of the Living God – the Holy Spirit, God Himself, wants to do something in you: DO YOU WANT TO LET HIM?
--- BETTER: ARE YOU WILLING TO LET HIM?
-- Then stop wondering about it – stop putting off being baptized because “you don’t know what it is or how it works.”
-- Let God Himself fill in the details and if you are sensing that you need more; that you want more, then ASK HIM FOR THAT BAPTISM!
-- Ask Him for it with the mindset that however He manifests that baptism, whether in evangelism, or prayer, or prophesy, or whatever, you agree that you will let Him use you. Let Him take full control!