Sunday 9th June 2013 - Pursue God's Presence and Build Upon His Word - Brian Nish

PURSUE GOD'S PRESENCE and BUILD UPON HIS WORD INTRODUCTION Jer 29v13 - And you will seek Me and FIND Me - when you search for Me with your whole heart James 4v8 - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you Psalm 119v25b - Revive me according to Your word Math 24v35 - Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away All of us need more of God's presence - and - more of God's word in our lives W'worth prophecy "...when the Spirit and the Word come together we will see the greatest revival this nation has ever seen..." GOD'S PRESENCE Wed PFR - God's presence - Clifford - Janet - Janet T etc The Holy Spirit is God's presence on earth today Jesus said "It is to your advantage that I go away, because if I do not go the Holy Spirit will not come - and when He comes He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgement" (John 16v7-8) We thank God for the measure of His presence amongst us - everyone who comes here comments on this - but there's more When the Holy Spirit comes with His 'revival' presence there is conviction of sin - in individual hearts and in the community - and yet being loved at the same time Hebridean Revival/Duncan Campbell - "Revival is God 's presence in the community" Welsh Revival - people filled with joy on one side of church and conviction on the other 'Bend me - Bend us' 'Send Your Holy Spirit for Christ's sake' God wants all of us to personally encounter His presence in new ways as part of this new season. I believe He wants us to encounter both His love and His holiness A wise man once said that "We're all as close to God as we want to be" And you will seek Me and FIND Me...(Jer 29v13) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (James 4v8) How do seek God? How do we draw near to Him? We must be 'intentional' in our seeking Build a relationship with the Holy Spirit as a Person Ask Him to reveal the Father and Jesus to you Praise and worship God at every opportunity Take time to 'soak' in His presence - allow God to minister to you Tell God you love Him and want to know Him in a deeper way Ask God to reveal Himself to you in new ways Pray for God to pour out His Spirit on your life, your home, your church, your community Take regular times during the day to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit The more we know God and the more we are filled with Him the easier it will be to witness to others on a daily basis. We will minister out of our overflow! BUILDING UPON HIS WORD This world has many fads and many expert opinions which all come and go. There are also wars, terrorism, and all sorts of other evils taking place everywhere Behind the scenes the battle is for TRUTH! Many in this nation believe that all truth is equal "My truth is just as valid as your truth" God sees things differently! God's word is unchanging and eternal, - and is ABSOLUTE truth Therefore, it surely makes sense to build our lives and ministries on the word of God In December, part of a word that God gave to Allison and myself was this: "I have given you everything you need, I have given you My word - and My word is truth" Part of a word from Bethel Students about three significant keys for us as a church was: 1) Bonds of family 2) Unity 3) The truth of the word of God (The fulfilment of His promises to His people) Can we trust the bible? The bible is the world's best selling book ( now taken off best sellers list!) Translated into more languages than any other book: Bible 2,500 languages Pilgrims Progress 2,000 languages Pinocchio 260 languages Bible consists of 66 books written over 1500 years by 40 different authors and has a consistent theme throughout Go to any library in the world and try to find the same? There is more historical evidence for the bible than any other historical document 24,000 original manuscripts for New Testament alone Homers Iliad 643 original manuscripts Many other historical documents only have a handful of original manuscripts Therefore, if critics want to dismiss the accuracy of the bible they must also dismiss most of history How can we build our lives upon the word of God? Again, we need to be 'intentional' Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God We need spiritual as well as natural food on a daily basis Believe that the bible is the word of God and is absolute truth Read it, pray over it, and cry out for insight and understanding Dig beyond the surface level Train yourself to obey the word because that will bring blessing (James 1v25) Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10v17) No word - no faith! Learn to mix the word with faith (Heb 4v2) and claim the promises of the bible for yourself Sometimes we have to mix the word with faith and patience (Heb 6v12) The more the Spirit and the Word come together in our lives the more we will experience personal revival CONCLUSION Let us pursue God's presence - and build our lives and ministries upon His word Remember the W'worth prophecy "...as the Spirit and the Word come together we will see the greatest revival this nation has ever seen, eclipsing the Wesleyan and Welsh revivals of former years, and this revival will go from this nation to mainland Europe" From IHOP last year "Revival is going to start in Britain - wild fire which is unstoppable - and this revival will go from Britain to Europe" Let the cry go up "God I want more of Your revival presence in my life - and I ask You to revive me also according to Your word"