lifewords

Margaret Cornell
Sunday@6 Lighthouse-Ely 24th August
In the book of Job we see Job cry out if only there were someone who could intercede on my behalf!!!!
32For [God] is not a [mere] man, as I am, that I should answer Him, that we should come together in court. There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand upon us both, would that there were!
God was not pleased either that there was nobody to stand in the gap so....
GOD SOUGHT AN INTERCESSOR
Is 59
15Yes, truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice.16And He (GOD ) saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right];
So what did he do ????
therefore His own arm( JESUS) brought Him victory, and His own righteousness [having the Spirit without measure] sustained Him 17For [the Lord] put on righteousness as a breastplate or coat of mail, and salvation as a helmet upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal [and furious divine jealousy] as a cloak 18According as their deeds deserve, so will He repay wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; on the foreign islands and coastlands He will make compensation.19So [as the result of the Messiah's intervention] they shall [reverently] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives].20He shall come as a Redeemer to Zion and to those in Jacob (Israel) who turn from transgression, says the Lord.
NT talks of JESUS

Hebrews 12:22-2422But rather, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering, 23And to the church (assembly) of the Firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect,24And to Jesus, the Mediator (Go-between, Agent) of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks [of mercy], a better and nobler and more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance
Hebrews 7:25 (Amplified Bible)
25Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Romans 8.26
26So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.
27And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will
However
Jesus is the greatest and truest and most visible pattern of an intercessor
First of all..
• He must have said not my will but thy will to the father
• Secondly he did all he could to identify with man
• He walked with us shared human life and was the perfect connection between man and God on the earth because it says
1. he only did what the father told him to do and
2. what he saw the father do
• His identification went as far as to take on man’s sin in his own body and bear the punishment instead of man on the cross and triumph over it

because we could not do it ourselves.
• Then in our place he rose from the dead and took his place in heaven

• where he is now interceding for us and waiting for us and working through us to put all the rest of his enemies under his feet

JESUS>>>>John 15:13-15 (Amplified Bible)
13No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.
God seeks those who identify with Jesus.
• Dying with him
• rise with him
• sitting with him in the heavenlies.
We are to have entered into rest as he has
Being an intercessor is not the same as praying the prayer of intercession...
We are called to pray for others , intercede for them standing in the gap for them before God and being the go between because they are unable to do it themselves,
but we always need to remember that God can call us to be the answer to our prayers ...which would be being an intercessor
EG send labourers into the harvest ....Here am I send me!!!
(And in the prayer of intercession we perhaps need to know the victory in our own heart before we can gain it in another’s )
back to Is 59.16!!!!
16And He GOD saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right]; therefore His own arm brought Him victory,
The true life of an intercessor is one which is dedicated, yielded...a life laid down , a life of service , obedience and not counting the cost
Only the Holy Spirit can lead us in this life to be the arm of HIS victory
The prophets knew how to be true intercessors
At God’s command they revealed truth..BY WHAT THEY DID
Ezekiel...
Had to lie on one side for 390 day to show the number of days God would bring judgement on the land
He was not allowed to cry for his wife when she died to show that when the temple was destroyed they were not to mourn either
Hosea...God told him to marry a harlot to demonstrate his unconditional love for His people
Isaiah...was an aristocrat but had to walk naked and barefoot for three years
Jeremiah God did not allow him to marry at all
Moses left the palace of Egypt to identify with his people the Jews. Purified by God by 40 years in the wilderness he was used to lead his people out of Egypt and through the desert
Such was his intercession that he told the Lord ...Blot me out or forgive them!!!!
More modern men
Wesley saved England from revolution
John Wesleystarted a movement of practical piety-- a movement that continues today.
He wanted men to
• deepen their Christian walk in word and deed.
• Develop disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and fasting.
• Discoverthe roots of mission, spirituality, and justice.
• Act with him on issues of poverty, slavery, substance abuse, education of children, women's leadership.

Hudson Taylor ..China Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) was an English missionary to China. Founded the China Inland Mission which at his death included 205 mission stations with over 800 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians.
He identified closely with the Chinese and was one of the first missionaioes to ear Chinese clothes
CT STUDD 1860-1931) was an English missionary who faithfully served His Saviour in China, India, and Africa. His motto was:
With the true heart of an intercessor he said
"If Jesus Christ is God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."
He and his wife spent the last 16 years of their marriage apart
William Booth ... the poor ... The Christian Mission
In 1865, Booth and his wife Catherine opened The Christian Revival Society in the East End of London, where they held meetings every evening and on Sundays, to offer repentance, salvation and Christian ethics to the poorest and most needy, including alcoholics,criminals and prostitutes. The Christian Revival Society was later renamed The Christian mission.
Booth and his followers practiced what they preached and performed self-sacrificing Christian and social work, such as opening “Food for the Million” shops (soup kitchens), not caring if they were scoffed at or derided for their Christian ministry work.
George Muller ..orphans
At the age of seventy, Mr. Muller began to make great evangelistic tours. He traveled 200,000 miles, going around the world and preaching in many lands and in several different languages. He frequently spoke to as many as 4,500 or 5,000 persons. Three times he preached throughout the length and breadth of the United States. He continued his missionary or evangelistic tours until he was ninety years of age. He estimated that during these seventeen years of evangelistic work he addressed three million people. All his expenses were sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
Greatest of all Muller's undertakings was the erection and maintenance of the great orphanages at Bristol. He began the undertaking with only two shillings (50 cents) in his pocket; but in answer to prayer and without making his needs known to human beings, he received the means necessary to erect the great buildings and to feed the 2000 orphans day by day for sixty years. In all that time the children did not have to go without a meal, and Mr. Muller said that if they ever had to go without a meal he would take it as evidence that the Lord did not will the work to continue. Sometimes the meal time was almost at hand and they did not know where the food would come from, but the Lord always sent it in due time, during the twenty thousand or more days that Mr. Muller had charge of the homes.
Mother Theresa...lives among the poor ...as the poor
was an Albanian catholic nun with Indian citizenship who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcuta, Indiain 1950. For over forty five years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.
By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a documentary and book, Something Beautiful for God by Malcome Muggerage. She won the Nobel peace prizein 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Rata. in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, orphanages, and schools.
Following her death she was beatified by Pope John {aulIIand given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Rees Howells
Called to a life of faith READ page ...45 Of book Rees Howells intercessor
These men and women show the pattern of life of he intercessor
They heard God speak to them and put what they heard into action making a full identification with those they heard God call them to
This meant USUALLY Living alongside those they were called to ...sharing their lives
What about you and me? Can we do this?
Mostly we want to live our own life and do a bit for God on the side ....
EG send labourers into the harvest ....Here am I send me!!!
EG send labourers into the harvest ....Here am I send me!!!
Maybe we will never know what God can do with a truly consecrated and dedicated believer ...sold out to him unless we do it !!!
There is our calling as a true intercessor
• to hear the will of God and
• whatever it cost to do it
If we consider this idea....JUST Praying is easy!
This life of a living sacrifice...mediating between God and the world seeking by any means to bring the two parties together ...
we sometimes call it evangelism!!!!
We share our life with someone, offer them friendship, enter into their sorrow ,walk beside them in difficulties, seek to show the unconditional love of God to them

24^th August 2008 Lighthouse Celebration

 

I heared a story that may amuse you.

Two young brothers were always in trouble. At last their mother sent them to see the pastor to see if he could sort them out.

The first went in sat down and the pastor asked him “Where is God?” No answer, so he asked again. “Where is God?” Again, no answer. He asked again, “Where is God?”

At this the boy ran out and found his brother. “We are in big trouble now,” he said, “they’ve lost God and they are blaming us.”

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

 

God is a big God. When he blesses he blesses us with every spiritual blessing.

We don’t need to limit Him with “small god” thinking – which says, “My problems are bigger”

 

Ephesians 2:7 (Amplified Bible) He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favour) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.

His promises are for total fulfilment, limitless, grace, that can’t be measured.

He is far more able to bless us than we can even dream.

the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace.

 It is

Superabundantly, far over and above all we can ask imagine

 

Ephesians 3: 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us

This is a “now” promise. When we are in heaven - we won’t be asking – we won’t need his power working in us there. His promise is for the full measure of blessing now.

Ephesians 3:20 (Amplified Bible) Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]—

 

What he can do is beyond or dreams.

He is able to perfect, complete – bring to fullness what he desires in us.

 

Our part is not to give up believing. We are to hope; that is the have a confident expectation in Him. Trust in Him.

The time is now when he will act on our behalf.

We might be ready to give up – we are tempted, but that is the time when the breakthrough is near. The devil knows it. We need to know that the devil comes to steal kill and destroy our dreams because then we give up on believing God.

 

I preached on expectation. That is the positive hope that is required for faith, which is the substance of things hoped for.

Today I want to go further – To say that he can do more than we can hope for – more than we expect. He is the God of surprises.

We can have faith in his promises; Promises in the written word, the logos. We can have faith in what he has said to us, the rhema word, the revelation, what we hear him sayinge is the God of surpises

 to us.   

There is more. We can have faith in Him.

 

Have faith in God

In trusting him we can stand in the place were we know that God will supply all our needs. He will surprise us. We don’t know how he will bless us, we don’t know when he will bless us. We don’t know when the answer to prayer will come or how it will come. He can do more than we can ask or imagine, think or dream.

 

But, you say:

“He doesn’t do it for me. I have been praying but -----“

But he is the God that can do whatever. He can do it for you. He can do more than you can think possible. He is the God of the impossible so the improbable is easy for God.

          David was about to be stoned by his followers when they had lost everything to a raiding band. He strengthened himself in the Lord his God – a week later he was crowned king. The impossible situation was turned around by God.

On the other hand there are situations that you are responsible for – things you do that cause problems – attitudes, actions, habits, and ways of thinking that are not helpful. God can show you that these need to change and he can help you change. Some of these things are the ones you say, “That’s the way I am, I could never change.”  BUT God is the God who can do the impossible. Can you allow him to?

 

Deuteronomy 28:2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:

‘Overtake’ here has the meaning of something coming upon you that you did not expect – a surprise.

So we can expect more than an expectation – (positive hope for something) – that is when our expectation is expecting God.

The condition here is to obey.

Jesus taught us in words and example to obey. These are his commandments: to love God, love each other and to love those he died to save – the whole world!

 

Let’s stand in the place of surprises, let’s stand in the place of blessing. Let God’s love in so that we can love with the gift of his love in us.

 

The place of blessing belongs to us. When we were born again we accepted that Jesus died for us and took upon himself all the curses that there are in this world for us to be free from them – he gave us the blessing in exchange. So we have the blessing. We are expected to live in the blessing – to know and experience the blessed life. The thing is we don’t all know it or accept it so we don’t get the blessings that our the bye-product of THE BLESSING. We need to know it, to have faith that it is so, to live in it. If you don’t know it you don’t expect it, you don’t trust in the fact.

Let’s expect the unexpected from the God of surprises.

 

When there are problems in life – there always are and always will be until we get to heaven. There is also the temptation to doubt. We confess the impossibility of anything different. We don’t believe God can make a difference. That is a bigger problem than the problem because the answer is for those who believe and we miss the blessing. It is not out there were we can see it. It is sneaking up ready to overtake us.

Here is a story I heard.

This man was due to have an operation to remove a life threatening tumour. At the last minute on the day of the operation he was ent home because the surgeon was not available for some special reason. Two weeks later he is back in hospital having tests for the operation to take place later that day. He is ready but the time for the operation comes and goes. Three hours later the surgeon comes to tell him that they will not operate. Another delay? The surgeon explains that they have been studying his test and scan results; they had called in other doctors for consultation too.  He explains that although the tumour was there in the scans from two weeks ago, today they can’t see any evidence of it and as far as they can tell he is perfectly well. Wasn’t he glad that the operation was delayed? God is a God of surprises.

 

Some of you are waiting for relatives to be saved.  Others will say “that’s impossible” It isn’t

When I got saved some said “I never thought Tony would get religion” I am glad that there were others who prayed believing in the impossible. Well I didn’t get religion, I got Jesus.

If you are sick and there are those who doubt that you can ever be well. Don’t get into agreement with them. Trust God and get into agreement with him.

Let’s get into the place where we know that we are blessed!

Ephesians 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

 

We have the blessing of god almighty through Christ Jesus. Let’s trust God – expecting him to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

 

Let’s trust him when things go wrong – he can do the impossible –like he did for the man who had the tumour.

 

I heard of a girl who had a flat tyre on the way home from church – a dark and wet night. Some problem! But God is a God of surprises. Some one stopped to help her. They got married within the year. He can turn problems into stepping stones.

 

Stand in faith trusting God.

 

We stand in the blessing.

He has not left us helpless as he has sent his holy spirit to be our helper.

He lives inside us to bring us to remberance of being blessed by God.

Our sin has been taken away.

We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

We are the healed and whole ones.

We are delivered and set free.

We are called to prosper in all things and to be in health even as our souls prosper.

This is the word of God for you. Do you receive it today? Be blessed in the receiving and in living out of it.

Antony Cornell    Page 5    25/08/2008

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