This week we had our Holy Spirit week and it was a topic that was totally new to me and we covered a bit of it the previous week, yet our speaker hit us with a revelation of how to look at the spiritual gifts that God can work in us through the Holy Spirit. Our speaker was Raf Shaw from Adelaide, Australia and there he has a ministry that works primarily in healings each and every week. The healing rooms he has are similar to ones in Spokane, Washington and actually are run very similarly to that if any of you are interested in looking up some of that information. So Raf comes from a background that is not very admirable, yet he is one of those guys whom had an encounter with God and now is totally sold out for the Lord and letting Him work in his life. Raf had many stories of healing and miracles he has seen as he has truly been blessed by the Lord through spiritual gifts and is a guy truly led by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit and how He works is something that we don’t learn much about in our society today and it was stuff that was very interesting. Romans 12: 1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in views of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” There are nine spiritual gifts given to us by God through the Holy Spirit which can be found in 1 Cor 12: 8-10. So we have these gifts and we have given our lives to Christ and died to ourselves for Christ love and want to change the world, but how do we do it? If we don’t use these spiritual gifts we are unable to do God’s perfect will, we are able to do good and pleasing works but not the perfect will of our Father.
These Spiritual Gifts are a choice for us to accept and use in God’s perfect will, they are freely given to us by God through the Holy Spirit just as Father determines. We have made a choice to follow Christ with our lives and that is where we then take it to the next step to know God with our hearts. To do this we have to know the truth and it isn’t dependent upon time and place the absolute trust is God’s word. God wants His will to become our will and we do that by giving up our spirit to have the Holy Spirit fill us and giving all our control over to God because its Him not us. With this we are the body of Christ and we all are a part of the body, which is our job/plan/purpose, and if we don’t fulfill our purpose then we are unable to do God’s perfect will. Through not giving in we live a life that is in fear and God can’t bless our fear, He can only bless our Faith.
So when we move in an act we need to wait on God to do His perfect will as He will guide us, teach us, comfort us, and equip us to share His word and glory. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in, God sent the Holy Spirit. John 14: 15-16 tells us how Jesus promises the Holy Spirit and although we can’t see Him we as believers know Him because He lives in us as we also live in Him. When we truly make it to this point where we believe this is our minds and hearts then we can go out into the world and do God’s perfect will. So what is God’s perfect will? 1 Cor 12: 25-28 explains how there are 8 functions in the spirit that allows us to edify the kingdom. The functions of the spirit that gives us authority are; Apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, workers of healings, helping others, administrator, and tongues. These jobs help to build up the kingdom and through these we can expand the glory of God, yet we also have to fulfill these jobs through God’s perfect will we will fail to bring the proper glory to God. So we need to be in prayer and pray through the Holy Spirit because if we aren’t led by the Holy Spirit then we fail to be led by God because God sent the Holy Spirit to be the perfect Counselor for us here on earth.
This is my sermon I just developed based upon the information we got this week, didn’t mean for it to be that way but I guess that is being led in the Holy Spirit. So this is the life that Raf, our speaker, has lived since he had an encounter with God and totally surrendered his life to him. Raf has lived through these values and understanding that is totally guided by the Holy Spirit. So Raf is traveling the world healing people as God leads him from place to place. He has seen healing happen by the Holy Spirit working in him as he has become totally obedient to the voice of God that He hears during prayer. He has the gift of healing and prophecy and with that He can know stuff about nonbelievers and bring them into the kingdom as God reveals something to him that he can use to get their attention and let them know God loves them.
One story that was the greatest testimony he gave of God being all powerful and miraculous was of a guy whom would come to his construction site about 30 years ago that had several deformities and issues that made his body hunched and twisted. This guy would walk by the construction site each and every day for three years and would ask for money so he could go down to the shop and buy cigarettes each day. Raf heard God tell him to give the guy $2 if he could say, “God thank you for healing me.” So each day for the next 2 years this guy would come by and he wasn’t stupid so he would say, “God thank you for healing me,” and would get $2 everyday. Then one day when Raf was in prayer before work God told him to give the crippled guy the real thing today, to reveal Gods power and glory to him. Well, that day the guy came to the site and said, “God thank you for healing me,” then asked for his money and Raf said that today you get the real thing. At this point the Holy Spirit began praying through him and this guy started to straighten out and stand up straight and he was healed by God’s amazing power. Wow, how amazing it that right?
Many of you are probably thinking that is crazy and that it just a story and how can you believe something life that if a guy has been crippled his whole life and then be healed in an instant? I thought the same thing at first then I thought about it and why would I think the God who created us and the magnificent and intricate creation we are then why couldn’t He heal someone to the great creation that He created them in. So this is the ultimate level of doing God’s perfect will and it is all based upon patience and timing, but we need to know that God has a plan and purpose for each and every one of us and if we believe that in our hearts He will reveal Himself to us. So, today I am totally committing my spirit to God and asking Him to work in me and through me to reveal a glimpse of His glory to me and others so that I may make disciples of all nations.
God can’t bless our Fear; He can only bless our Faith.
Okay so this week was very challenging for me as it was new information and I am sure it is to most of you, so feel free to comment and ask me questions as I am still trying to fully comprehend the magnitude of God and all that He is.
Okay so this week was very challenging for me as it was new information and I am sure it is to most of you, so feel free to comment and ask me questions as I am still trying to fully comprehend the magnitude of God and all that He is.
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