Group Bible Study

If we desire to live a life of closeness to the Spirit of God, we need to be quick to humble ourselves and not make excuses. Our resistance to the Spirit’s conviction hinders His ability to lead and guide us in the way; whereas, our humility to receive the correction and convicting work of the Spirit will bring us more grace:  “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6).  Whenever you catch yourself justifying something that the Holy Spirit is showing you to be wrong, know that the enemy is busy trying to get you to rely on self rather than God’s intimate presence and His power. How Do I Gain Victory over Self, Sin, and Satan? Paul, the apostle in his letter to the church in Rome, wanted to help the believers there with the same difficulties that we face. He taught them that there is 1)  Something we must know , 2)  Something we must consider , and 3)  Something we must present . ...

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover.  42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.  43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem,  but they were unaware of it   (Luke 2:41-43). When Jesus was twelve-years-old, He wanted to get on with His Father's business while at the Passover in Jerusalem. The age when a Jewish boy became a man, their Bar Mitzvah, was not settled at the age of 13 until many years later than this, so the Passover mentioned above could have been Christ's coming of age. After the Feast of Passover was finished His parents assumed that He was with others of the massive caravan of people as they began the three-or four-day walk (80 miles) back to Nazareth. The walking to and from Jerusalem was highly communal and bonded communities like those in Nazareth. The passage says they went a day's journ...

In the last few days, we have been meditating on the Holy Spirit's presence in and upon believers in Christ. Today, I want to go a bit further and hopefully, explain how we continue to walk in step with the Spirit and be sensitive to obey His leading. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus at His baptism, John the apostle wrote that He came as a dove and remained on Christ:  I saw the Spirit come down from heaven  as a dove   and  remain   on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, “the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and  remain   is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit (John 1:32-33). Have you ever seen a dove fly down and sit on someone? I have never witnessed this myself, although I have seen pigeons land on someone, usually for food! When we lived in England, one of our favorite places to take people was a place in London called Trafalgar Square. This area ...

Over the last few days, we have been looking at how we can be more open to the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is our Helper, or advocate, the One called alongside us to assist us in walking through enemy-infested territory—the world we live in. As well as the Holy Spirit being our helper, He will guide us into all truth and He can give us a "Rhema" word of God in a tight situation. This kind of revelatory word is sometimes referred to as a  “word in season” (Proverbs 15:23),  or an apt word right on time when it is needed. What is meant by a Rhema word? Two Greek words are translated into English as Word,  Rhema, and Logos . The Greek word  Rhema means an utterance or a revelatory picture, vision, or timely word. It can be a portion of Scripture that "speaks" to the heart of a believer, something highly relevant to a current situation in a believer’s life; or it can be a clear revelatory thought to take a particular course of a...

When I was just a young believer and leading a house church, a pastor of a regular church in a town 30 miles from me had been encouraged to invite me to speak at his evening service. When I arrived on his doorstep a couple of hours before the meeting, he was visibly shocked by how young and small I was. His chin hit the floor when he realized I was his guest speaker for the evening church service. He was shocked as he looked down at me when he came to the door. He was surprised at my youth, saying, "but you are so young!" I replied, “I am trying to get old, but it takes time.” Don’t be put off and think that God cannot use you because of your youth or because of your lack of experience. Walking with God happens when we take one step at a time, and He can use whomever He chooses. David, Jeremiah, and Timothy were all young when God began using them. We tend to believe that God only uses the wise and knowledgeable, but it is not true. God wants His power to flow through us w...

In the last few days, we have been meditating on hearing God’s voice and being led and guided by the Spirit of God. Today I want to look at things that can hinder the flow of God’s power to work in us and through us. Billy Graham once said, “No alcoholic was ever more in bondage to his habit of drink than many Christians are to their habit of doubting. Many Christians have settled down under their doubts as though they have contracted an incurable disease.” As rubber tires stop electricity from grounding and keeping an individual in a car safe during an electric storm, doubt will hinder the flow of God's power in you and through you. When Jesus taught in his hometown of Nazareth, He could not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith (Matthew 13:58). Matthew recorded that this was the problem of the nine from healing the man's son (Matthew 17:20). Begin to trust God by taking small steps of faith. Pray specific prayers to overcome doubt and unbelief. Seek the Lor...

13 "If my people would but listen to me,   if Israel would follow my ways,  14 how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! (Psalm 81:13-14). If we want to be full and controlled by the Holy Spirit, we must be obedient to the Spirit’s promptings. What do I mean by promptings? Let me give you an example: My American born wife, Sandy, left our home in England to visit the United States to see her parents for two weeks; the night before her return, she called me from the airport in Chicago to let me know that she would be boarding her flight in an hour and it would be an eight-hour flight. The flight was due to arrive at Heathrow airport at 6 am in the morning, and I needed to drive two hours to pick her up. I got up at 3:30 am and while I was getting my things together to drive to the airport, the thought popped into my head, “take your passport!” When the thought came to me, I immediately rejected the thought thinking to myself that I ...

Have you ever noticed that when Jesus gathered twelve disciples, He didn’t go to the Bible Schools, the Yeshiva’s of Jerusalem? He gathered normal uneducated people like you and me, well, me anyway! After the outpouring of the Spirit, the apostles and first 3,000 disciples met in large gatherings of 3-5 thousand up in the temple courts, which was where Peter and John were going when the crippled beggar was healed in Acts 3:1. They also gathered in home groups where they shared their food and broke bread celebrating the Lord's Supper. Jude in his letter called them love feasts (Jude, verse 12). I don't believe that a priest or a full-time Christian leader ever led the Lord’s Supper in those gatherings. I picture it happening at these early meetings in their homes in a straightforward way; the leader of a house group of people would break the bread just as the head of the family or household used to do on the Shabbat (Sabbath) on Friday evening, proclaiming the blessing over t...

Luke tells us in the Book of Acts that after the resurrection, Jesus continued appearing to them throughout forty days (Acts 1:3). What was He doing in those forty days? He was strengthening them in their faith and teaching them about the kingdom of God. I see the Day of Pentecost as a day when the Spirit came and filled or baptized (dipped until they were soaked and saturated) them because they were completely ready and abandoned to God's work. The time of waiting created a thirst that could only be quenched by God the Holy Spirit Himself. They were in a place of dependence on the Spirit because Jesus had left them seven days before the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:3). The 11 disciples were not supermen, they were just like you and me, and they needed God's Spirit to accomplish the task of taking the message to others. Dedication and dependence on God to work through them by His Spirit enabled them to complete their mission. It is no different for us. 3 After his suffering,...

37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, " If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.   38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."  39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39 Emphasis mine). There are four conditions in the above passage to drinking deeply of the Spirit of God. Before we dive into the requirements, it will help if we described the scene. The words above were spoken at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2), the third major feast of the year, which falls around the middle of October in our calendar. The eighth day of the feast was the most noteworthy (John 7:37). On that day with thousands of people looking on, the High Priest went down to the Pool of Siloam and filled up a two-pint golden pitcher and c...

Revival can grow from a small seed such as a prayer meeting. The prophet Zechariah said:  "Who despises the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10).  We tend to minimize what we can do to such an extent that we don’t do anything. The enemy will whisper to us that our little effort for God will make no difference at all, but in the hands of a mighty God, great things can come from small efforts and small things. It is only as we get going with our small energies that God can guide us. I learned a long time ago as a commercial fisherman on the east coast of England that you cannot steer a stationary vessel, a small rudder can only guide it as it is moving through the water. When we start using our time, energy, talents and money God can add and multiply what we put in His hands, even if it is only five loaves and two fish. Small things done with great love can change the world! Again and again, when I have read about revival and the moving of the Spirit in power, the ...

In yesterday’s meditation (Scroll down further), we were talking about fasting for breakthrough for revival, both personal and for revival for our nation, so today I wanted to give you some practical advice and personal testimony on fasting. 1)      Don't start fasting for more than a day if you have never done it before. Building on success is wise. Start by fasting breakfast and lunch and plan to eat in the evening. Lengthen the amount of time as God leads you. 2)      If you usually drink tea or coffee, plan to kick the caffeine a day early so that the first day of a fast you are not dealing with a massive headache as well as no food in your stomach. I would encourage you to drink only water during fasting. Water helps in the cleansing of toxins from our bodies during fasting. There are one or two places where a person fasted having no water, but it is dangerous to go longer than three days without water. Moses was on a supernatural fast...