A WEEKEND OF REJOICING

             REJOICE IN THE LORD           

Rejoicing is not a feeling it’s an action and it is a command we are to rejoice and rejoice again.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord Always and again I say Rejoice

Rejoicing is what you do at a hockey game when your team scores a goal. It what people do when they win the lottery, it’s what parents do when they have a baby, it’s what they do when their child survives a dangerous even deadly crisis. It’s what the father did when the prodigal son returned. Rejoicing is what children do on their birthday and Christmas.

The most important thing we can rejoice in is the Blood of Christ our salvation and we are to do it always.

God says that rejoicing is so important that we should have a 7 day feast for it.

Leviticus 23

40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

7th day 7th month

The number 7 in the Bible is the number of Completion

So this feast of rejoicing starts in the 1^st day (the beginning) until completion on the 7 day.  It is about creation about God’s completion and rest

It often talks about rejoicing and the beginning and the completion of challenges in the Bible

Numbers 10: 10

10 Blow the trumpets in times of gladness, too, sounding them at your annual festivals and at the beginning of each month to rejoice over your burnt offerings and peace offerings. The trumpets will remind the LORD your God of his covenant with you. I am the LORD your God."

In the following verses we see that rejoicing in the Lord is what we need to do after taken over the territories that we win from the enemy.

Deuteronomy 12:7 (NLT)

"These are the laws and regulations you must obey as long as you live in the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 "When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods -- high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree. 3 Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Erase the names of their gods from those places! 4 "Do not worship the LORD your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods. 5 Rather, you must seek the LORD your God at the place he himself will choose from among all the tribes for his name to be honored. 6 There you will bring to the LORD your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your special gifts, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your freewill offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your flocks and herds.

7 There you and your families will feast in the presence of the LORD your God, and you will rejoice in all you have accomplished because the LORD your God has blessed you.

After having sinned and repented we need to rejoice again.

The story of David and Bathsheba is a great example King David didn’t go to war when he should have he committed adultery with the wife of one of the soldiers out to war. He then had her husband killed because He found out she was pregnant. But here was his cry out to God.

Psalm 51

1 For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my shameful deeds -- they haunt me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner -- yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But you desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being. 7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me -- now let me rejoice. 9 Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

Psalm 68

3 But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God's presence. Let them be filled with joy. 4 Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD -- rejoice in his presence!

God wants us to rejoice

Psalms 98 

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
² The Lord has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.
³ He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
⁵ Sing to the Lord with the harp,
With the harp and the sound of a psalm,
⁶ With trumpets and the sound of a horn;
Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King.

What’s more is He wants us to rejoice as a service to the Lord

Psalm 2:11

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

He is a parent and when His children are grumpy, complaining like our children do, He wants them to stop and rejoice. So this weekend my goal is to Rejoice in the Lord and find all the things I have to rejoice in no matter what.

Hour of Prayer 5 minutes at a time "THINE" Holy Spirit and Power

"THINE"  THE HOLY SPIRIT

The dove is just a simile, 
the Holy Spirit is not a dove it just 
descended gracefully
"like a" dove.

By the time I got to this point I was way over an hour but I still did every step after a while I spent more times on certain areas different days of the week.

45 minutes of prayer

if you're already at this point good congratulations, it took me a little longer to get this to a regular and consistent prayer life. Oh I prayed but it was a little chaotic and disorganized and they really didn't become life changing until I did start an organized prayer life a bit more.
It's about to get even easier to pray because now we invite the Holy Spirit to come along. 
This is when we move from just Prayer to spiritual warfare.
Here is the point that actually will give you the power to pray for hours.  Let's talk about the Holy Spirit. If you read my last post then you will know that the Holy Spirit has become so important to me that my day starts with acknowledging Him and inviting Him to be with me that day. My last word at night is to say good night to Him and ask Him to watch over me.
Who is the Holy Spirit and why do we need Him?

The Holy Spirit is the reason today we can Watch and pray.  He is the one that can actually direct our prayer without a structure. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the Power to pray with the Authority of Christ. It's the Holy Spirit that applies grace to our prayers and to us.  The Holy Spirit protects and comforts our minds. It's the Holy Spirit that every second of your life will wait by you to invite Him into your daily life. Guidance direction, empowerment, passion are all part of what the Holy Spirit can be in your life.
So that's it this 5 minutes is just a time for you to ask (Invite) the Holy Spirit to guide you to be apart of your life and others lives. It's a time to use the gifts for the harvest for healing for life.

Here is a little more about the Holy Spirit just so you can know all the things that the Holy Spirit has for you.

Today though for prayer I am going to talk about really things that we need for Prayers. 

I. The benefits of the Spirit 

1.          The Power of the Spirit

a.          It is the Power that sustains us in  prayer

b.          It is the power of the Holy Spirit in us that put’s action into our prayer

c.           It’s the power of the Spirit that  drives us to our knees to pray

2.          The Comforter

a.          It’s the comforter that heals our heart from the wounds of spiritual warfare

b.          It’s the comforter that allows us to not be afraid because we are never alone. 

c.           It’s the comforter that puts compassion and empathy for others

d.          It’s the Comforter that breaks our Heart for the things that breaks the Fathers Heart

3.          The fire of the Spirit It gives us passion and a heart for the harvest compassion for others and a love of the house of God.

a.          He’s the fire that drives us to prayer

b.          He’s the fire that is the power that devours the works of the enemy and also that brings change and revival to us and to the world.

        

4.          He's the Helper and the one who brings all things to remembrance 

a.          He’s the helper and the one who brings all things to remembrance that does the most for us and others on a minute by minute.

b.           He’s the helper who is always there when someone is troubled and comes to you with a need for a word of encouragement and direction.

c.           He’s also the one that when we study anything that will bring it to mind when we need it.  Which is why the more of the Word of God you read the more He can remind you of.

d.          He’s the helper reminder that allows us to pray when we have no idea how or what to pray.

II. The Gifts of the Spirit.

These are the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us to do the Work of the Father I will go further into discussion on each of these at a later date.

GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS

1 Corinthians 12:

12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: ² You know that^[a] you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. ³ Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴ There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶ And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. ⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: ⁸ for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

1) Word of Wisdom

2) Word of Knowledge

3) Faith

4) Gifts of Healing

5) Working of Miracles

6) Prophecy

7) Discerning of Spirits

8) Divers (or different) kinds of Tongues

9) Interpretation of (different) Tongues

I believe that the Holy Spirit has given all of us these gifts they are ours to
use when we need them. They are gifts though and we can Choose  open
them and to use them or throw them into a corner.

III. The fruits of the Spirit these are simply the result you will see in your life if you walk daily guided by the Holy Spirit.

1.          Love

2.          Joy

3.          Peace

4.          Patience

5.          gentleness

6.          Goodness

7.          Humility

8.          Self Control

9.          Faith

Enjoy the week finding out all the ways the Holy Spirit will be with you and guide you if you just spend 5 minutes acknowledging Him and Inviting Him into your day.

 

I found this on a web page and found it quite Good I don’t know much about the Christian Apologetics and research Institute so I can’t recommend all of their doctrines but This I found very good.

His Names	His Attributes	Symbols of	Sins Against	Power in Christ's Life
God Acts 5:3-4	Eternal Heb. 9:14	Dove Matt. 3:16	Blasphemy Matt. 12:31	Conceived of Matt. 1:18,20
Lord 2 Cor. 3:18	Omnipotent Luke 1:35	Wind Acts 2:1-4	Resist (Unbelief) Acts 7:51	Baptism Matt. 3:16
Spirit 1 Cor. 2:10	Omnipresent Psalm 139:7-10	Fire Acts 2:3	Insult Heb. 10:29	Led by Luke 4:1
Spirit of God 1 Cor. 3:16	Will 1 Cor. 12:11	*****	Lied to Acts 5:3	Filled with Power Luke 4:14,18
Spirit of Truth John 15:26	Loves Rom. 15:30	*****	Grieved Eph. 4:30	Witness of Jesus John 15:26
Eternal Spirit Heb. 9:14	Speaks Acts 8:29; 13:2	*****	Quench 1 Thess. 5:19	Raised Jesus Rom. 8:11

The Works of the Holy Spirit
Access to God - Eph. 2:18	Inspires prayer -   Eph. 6:18; Jude 20
Anoints for Service - Luke 4:18	Intercedes -Rom. 8:26
Assures - Rom. 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6	Interprets Scripture -   1 Cor. 2:1,14; Eph. 1:17
Authors Scripture - 2 Pet. 1:20-21	Leads - Rom. 8:14
Baptizes - John 1:23-34;  1 Cor. 12:13-14	Liberates - Rom. 8:2
Believers Born of - John 3:3-6	Molds Character - Gal. 5:22-23
Calls and Commissions - Acts 13:24; 20:28	Produces fruit - Gal. 5:22-23
Cleanses - 1 Thess. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:2	Empowers Believers - Luke 24:49
Creates - Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4	Regenerates - Titus 3:5
Empowers - 1 Thess. 1:5	Sanctifies - Rom. 15:16
Fills - Acts 2:4; 4:29-31; 5:18-20	Seals - Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30
Gives gifts - 1 Cor. 12:8-11	Strengthens - Eph. 3:16; Acts 1:8; 2:4; 1 Cor. 2:4
Glorifies Christ - John 16:14	Teaches - John 14:26
Guides in truth - John 16:13	Testifies of Jesus - John 15:26
Helps our weakness - Rom. 8:26	Victory over flesh - Rom. 8:2-4; Gal. 4:6
Indwells believers - Rom. 8:9-14; Gal. 4:6	Worship helper - Phil. 3:3

From the Heart the Benefits of Prayer

IN MY HEART TODAY

When I wake in the morning (usually later morning) I for a moment keep my eyes closed and reach out to feel the Holy Spirit.  He wants to spend day and night close to me, He has even placed angels all around me to protect me.  Everyday it is His desire to be with me on my Journey, but needs an invitation. So I invite Him......and He always comes.  Some mornings like today i have a few physical problems that make it hard to face the day, but one thing I never have to feel and never have to despair about is being alone,

He is right here restoring and stretching my muscles, both the physical ones as I do my exercises and my Spiritual ones as I exercise them.   He rejoices with me He weeps with me and even collects every tear in a bottle like a jewel and stores them in Heaven.  I do not have to be afraid for anything because really what can possibly take me away from the Love of the Father of the Son and how can anyone separate me from the Holy Spirit? They can't! To begin with I heard the Word of God and I added a little faith and I started to believe, I cherish the Word more then ever today, however, I don't need the Bible anymore to believe because I know the Living Word, I have a relationship with Him. He is right here with me, in that there is freedom, victory, grace, mercy, joy, peace, justice, Love, patience, best of all intimacy.

Psalm 33

New Century Version (NCV)

Praise God Who Creates and Saves

33 Sing to the Lord, you who do what is right;
    honest people should praise him.
² Praise the Lord on the harp;
    make music for him on a ten-stringed lyre.
³ Sing a new song to him;
    play well and joyfully.

⁴ God’s word is true,
    and everything he does is right.

 
⁵ He loves what is right and fair;
    the Lord’s love fills the earth.

⁶ The sky was made at the Lord’s command.
    By the breath from his mouth, he made all the stars.
⁷ He gathered the water of the sea into a heap.
    He made the great ocean stay in its place.

 
⁸ All the earth should worship the Lord;
    the whole world should fear him.
⁹ He spoke, and it happened.
    He commanded, and it appeared.
¹⁰ The Lord upsets the plans of nations;
    he ruins all their plans.
¹¹ But the Lord’s plans will stand forever;
    his ideas will last from now on.
¹² Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people he chose for his very own.

 
¹³ The Lord looks down from heaven
    and sees every person.
¹⁴ From his throne he watches
    all who live on earth.
¹⁵ He made their hearts
    and understands everything they do.
¹⁶ No king is saved by his great army.
    No warrior escapes by his great strength.
¹⁷ Horses can’t bring victory;
    they can’t save by their strength.
¹⁸ But the Lord looks after those who fear him,
    those who put their hope in his love.

¹⁹ He saves them from death
    and spares their lives in times of hunger.
²⁰ So our hope is in the Lord.
    He is our help, our shield to protect us.
²¹ We rejoice in him,
    because we trust his holy name.
²² Lord, show your love to us
    as we put our hope in you.

Jesus help each of us know You better and love You more. Jesus draw near to us and advocate for us. Mussel the mouth of the accuser.  Mostly Father protect us with the zealously for we are Your children!

 My heart Melts in Your Presence God
Love you