Forces that Work in you (2-part series)

Sermon Transcript for Sunday, 8-July-2012

Mike Connell

Copyright 2012 by Mike Connell Ministries

Smashwords Edition

Forces that Work in You (1 of 2) Sin is a living, spiritual entity. When sin is in your life it's not just something that sits there. It is something alive, operative, active, wanting to increase its hold over your life and produces death. The Holy Spirit works to energise us. What does He energise us to do, and more specifically, how do I get that happening in my life? How can I move from where I am to there?

Forces that Work in You (2 of 2) The Bible says if I don't do the word of God, if I don't apply into my life what God's saying to me, actually I end up quite deceived because I think I'm doing real well because I measure doing real well by the information I know - and I've got three folders worth of Bible notes. I've been to Bible school - I've got a whole folder full of Ian's notes - and the CD! But you know what? None of this in the end, until it's applied, changes my life. So the Hebrew way of thinking is very simply this; what you are doing is what you know.

Forces that Work in You (1 of 2)

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Hey, I want to just share something with you, to not let you down, but to get your spirit up, so let's open up our Bible in Philippians. I want to speak on forces that work within you - forces that work within you - and this will really help you, so let's have a look in Philippians, Chapter 2 and Verses 12 and 13, particularly Verse 13.

"Therefore my beloved, as you've always obeyed not only in my presence but also more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and with trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure". God is working in you to do something. We're going to look at that whole area of what God is doing.

God has a plan - most of last week we shared how God planned you before you came into this world. He planned something for you to accomplish. I'm glad He put song in your heart Ray. I like your songs. That's awesome songs - and so God has wired us. Everyone is created for a purpose. We found in Ephesians 2, we looked at it and found that every person, God has created us for accomplishing something with our life. We're not called to just breathe in and out and expire. We're called to do something and to do something significant and to do something that takes a little bit of risk.

So God has prepared an assignment for us and it unfolds through our life, but I want to talk about forces that work inside us because if we don't understand how God gets this assignment out of us, we never end up fulfilling it. We saw last week some practical ways you could discover what the assignment was that God had for you and one of them was to connect with the Holy Spirit and begin to listen to the voice of God. So notice what it says; "it's God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure".

That word 'work' is a word in the original language. It's the word [inegayo 00.02.12] from which we get the word 'energise', energise to - let me give you a definition of it; it's to be active, to be efficient, to be mighty, to rouse into activity. So let's read it again. It is God who energises you and rouses you up into activity so that you will choose to do the things that please Him, and it says not only will He rouse you up, but He'll put it in your mind to choose (or to want to choose) the things that please Him - and not only to want to choose them, but He says to actually do them and it's the same word to energise or become active doing things.

So let's read it again and put it in simple terms. It said God works or energises you so you become aware of and choose what He wants and then are empowered to work it out and get it done. Now that's amazing scripture isn't it? That is an amazing scripture, so we are joined to the spirit. So the Bible tells us we get born again in the spirit of God, we are joined spirit to spirit with God. When it says God works in you it's meaning the Holy Spirit is at work in you. The Holy Spirit energises you.

Now if you are highly energised - I tell you something that you energise is alive. Have you ever seen that TV ad about the Energiser batteries, you know? They have these little toys, you know and they have the batteries in them and donk, donk, donk, donk, donk, donk, donk - and then one of them starts to conk out and the Energiser battery just keeps on going. So that's the word energise. God energises you.

Now the problem is I don't see that happening in too many Christians ... [Laughter] ... so I wonder why that is so. I don't want to focus on this today, but it's obvious there are other forces at work to de-energise us. So the Holy Spirit works to energise us and what I want to focus on today, I want to give you shortly in a few minutes, I want to give you four simple things you do that cause something to happen inside you that activates the Holy Spirit to energise you. You haven't got a different Holy Spirit to anyone else. You've got the same Holy Spirit. He didn't give a little bit to you and a little bit more to him and a little bit more - He gave a person the Holy Spirit. We are joined to the spirit of God, so it's the spirit of God that energises us.

However, my question is well what does He energise us to do and more specifically, how do I get that happening in my life? That's the most important part - how can I move from where I am to there? But before we do that I want to look at some forces that actually also work inside you and these are quite negative. Let's have a look in Romans, Chapter 7 and Verse 5, and here's another force that works inside you, in Romans, Chapter 7 and Verse 5 and let's have a look at it here. It says in Verse 5, it says for when we were in the flesh sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Notice something else is at work, sinful passions or sin and that's the same word 'work' is the word energise, so what it's saying is when we think of sin we tend to think of it as something we do; well I got angry, or I said words I shouldn't have said, or I did something wrong. We tend to think of it in terms of something you did. What we seldom think is to actually think from a spiritual perspective and what we don't realise is that sin is not something you did. It's more than that. Sin actually operates like a living entity in your life and creates energy inside you. You have a think about this.

We know the Bible tells us that there's anger which is sin. Now when you get really outrageously angry, have you got energy working inside you? What kind of energy have you got? You've got the energy of sin - and is it real? Oh oh oh, it's real! Wound up there, it stiffens your whole body and your eyes start to glaze and your nostrils start to snort and you're saying and doing things you shouldn't be doing. You go oh, oh, I shouldn't have been doing that. That was something energising your whole body and did you remember the Holy Ghost when that was happening to you? Not at all! He wasn't anywhere round. Now there's a different form of energy and it's firing up inside you and you're grr-grr-grr and kicking something and there you are. Then you calm down again; now we can pray nicely and become aware of God again ... [Laughter] ... so - how many understand that experience, you know? You probably had it on the way to church. You drove there and someone got in the way and grr-grr-grr-grr! Oh, I'm going to church, that's right, you know? ... [Laughter] ... Had a big row between husband and wife, [grr-grr-grr] and then coming up here, smile, I'm going to church ... [Laughter] ... but the energy is still working inside you. Sin is not some thing, it is a living, spiritual entity. When sin is in your life it's not just something that sits there. It is something alive, operative, active, wanting to increase its hold over your life and produces death.

So what does it produce? It produces death. That means you become disconnected from God and from people and you become numbed or cold or insensitive, because a person who's dead is disconnected and they're cold and they're insensitive, so when sin is operating in your life there will be parts of your life where you are disconnected from people, where there'll be parts of your life where you're numb and dead and there's something working in there to try and gain ground like cancer.

So sin is not some thing. It's actually a living, spiritual entity that just grows and if you let it it'll rise up and it'll dominate your mind. You can think of unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is not just some thing from your past. Unforgiveness is a living energy that continues to work in your life and it continues to try and reproduce itself, so more unforgiveness is there. Envy is the same. If you've got envy - ever remember when you got envious of someone; oh, did you turn green! Was there energy flowing? You know, just get furious at something - the injustice of it!

So sin works in us. How many know sin works in us, aye? How many notice it works in you quite regularly huh? ... [Laughter] ... Yeah, especially when you're outside of church and not so nice then aye? So sin is there. Now here's the thing you've got realise; while we're in this body that thing is going to be operating. You think about lust. There's something about lust that just keeps operating. I reckon it only stops operating about half an hour after the person's dead and they start to stiffen in their body and get cold ... [Laughter] ... then they're safe now! ... [Laughter] ... There's no energy going now! That lust has stopped once and for all, see.

So lust is actually a strong driving energy. When you start to look at something you shouldn't be looking at, you'll find whether it's got energy or not. It'll rise up inside and dominate your mind. It'll take some effort to try and stop sinning. Have you noticed? And when we try to stop sinning, do you notice it actually gets worse? ... [Laughter] [You know a lot about it.] ... It just - I do know a lot about these things. ... [Laughter] ... I do indeed. I've wrestled most of them all my life, just didn't know how to get the victory, that was all. But I've discovered something that'll help you.

One of the thing is it says the strength of sin is the law. You shouldn't do that you know? You shouldn't do that. Now every time you say you shouldn't do that, something - I want to do it! ... [Laughter] ... Well you just put a sign up over there - 'Wet paint, don't touch' - you know someone is going to touch it. We'll come out of church, it'll be covered with fingerprints. You put a box in the middle of a room and it's a box and it's got a lid on it and it's got a sign up, 'Do not open' and we leave you alone in that room; it won't be long because you will be insanely driven to open the box ... [Laughter] ... and have a peek. It's not because you really ever came in wanting to do it, it's just the fact you couldn't open it and it looks like it's interesting. The more you think I can't do that, I shouldn't do it, I mustn't do that - I'll just have a quick peek, I'm sure it won't matter. ... [Laughter] ... That's what sin is like. It's an energy. You got the idea?

Okay then and trying harder to stop it isn't going to help. It just makes it stronger. Now have a look in Ephesians, Chapter 2. Here's another energy that works in us, Ephesians, Chapter 2. This one here I also know a bit about as well. There it is - and He made us alive who were once dead in trespasses and sins; and Verse 2 - in which you once walked according to the course of this world - said how we used to live just like the unsaved did, presuming we've changed that - and we were according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Now here, get this; evil spirits work in you. That's the same word energise, so they don't come and announce hey, I'm an evil spirit and I'm here. They just fill you with energy that drives you to sin and if there are areas of sin in your life that are already energised, they just get in there and ride in on top of them and make it really hard for you to get over it.

So now not only have you got a sin, you've got a devil pushing on you as well. There'd be a lot of people here who've got that happening, a lot. Well there's a lot. Now come on, don't be like that. You know that's true. ... [Laughter] ... You'd be a living a lot differently if there wasn't that happening and we have a deliverance sermon every year and we get people come in and some of them are the same people that were there last year. Good on them for coming back. They've recognised they've got something going on in their life and there's a sin energy that's defeating them and making their life miserable and disconnected, and there's also demonic spirits which are oppressing and energising the sin making life very difficult, because as good Christians we know what we ought to do.

And Paul wrote that in Romans 7. He said I know what I should be doing but I find there's a law in my body or in my flesh that goes counter. There's something de-energising me doing what God wants - and there's not a person here exempt from both of those things, not one of us. There's not one of us exempt from the sin energy and demonic energy that tries to depress you, hold you down, get you apathetic, get you locked in. See apathy is not just a sort of a word. It's a spiritual thing with a life of its own that when you've got apathy over you it sits over you like a wet blanket and oh - this is what you'd say: I can't be bothered, or another way of saying it, I haven't got the energy to do that.

So when spirits oppress people they haven't got the energy to break out and be different, so they live life low-level. Now the answer to it is not lots of laws and focussing on demons. The Bible tells us in Romans 8, there's now no condemnation. Jesus does not condemn you 'cause you've got the struggles of sin energy and demonic energy. There's no condemnation whatsoever and so Jesus doesn't condemn. Why on earth does most of the church condemn people and judge people that have got things wrong, as if we didn't? Hello! If you didn't have, if you were as free as you claim to be, you'd be doing a lot more for God. Getting the idea?

So it's because we've come under the law ourselves we bring others under the law; I should be doing this, I mustn't do that, I must do that. It's the law. There's no power in the law. You can't get energised for God with the law. All it does is defeat you every time because the thing you shouldn't be doing you end up doing - or you're so consumed with fighting it that you've got no energy left for anything much else. That's why many Christians live absolutely miserable lives, because they come under the law and they're trying to fight and they can't. They haven't got enough of the world to be happy and enough of God to be happy. There's not a - it's just miserable. So what's the answer to that?

Well it's very, very simple. It says the law of the spirit of life in Christ sets me free from the law of sin and death. In other words, I have to activate something else and then I get the victory and it's the activating something else that requires you co-operate with the Holy Ghost. It says God works you both to choose to do what He wants and then empowers you to actually do it, so here's the question. How on earth does that happen? Glad you asked - that's a good question to ask. How does that happen 'cause it's not happening much for me you say. [Laughs]

Let's go in Ephesians, Chapter 3 and let me give you the keys for - because they're so simple and you've already heard them over and over, it'll be like reminding you of things you already know and you just forgot, that's all. So what I want to do is encourage us to just remember the basics and do the basics again and it's not so hard because they work. It always works and you try harder to overcome your sin, you just get worse into it because you come under the law.

But if I actually acknowledge that sin is there and activate the spirit of life in Christ, so how can I do that? First thing to realise is I'm positioned already in a place of victory with Christ. See? We are all ready - it tells is in Ephesians 2 - seated in the realm of heaven with Him. We're joined to the overcomer. You're joined to Him already. You're joined to Him already. Nothing can separate you from Him. You have the spirit of God inside you. You have to find a way to activate the Holy Ghost inside you! He is willing. It's just we're not doing what we need to do that would arouse the spirit of God to flow more powerfully through our lives!

So in other words it says in Ephesians, Chapter something - three - three, Verse 16; in Paul's prayer, he prayed first of all we'd have revelation of the power that is available to us and then in Verse 16 he says that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with [dounamus, 00.17.19] supernatural, miracle, Holy Ghost power by the spirit of God in the inner man. So the Holy Ghost makes available to you and I [dounamus, 00.17.32] supernatural ability. The Holy Ghost works in us. The Holy Ghost energises us and when there's more energy from the Holy Ghost than there is sin and demons, you win!

It's like a plane. You have a look at a big jumbo jet. Now a jumbo jet theoretically couldn't really fly. It's far too big and heavy and there's the law of gravity says stay on the ground - but if you get the thing moving fast enough on the ground, then another law arises, starts to take place and you get an aerodynamic lift. Now you have one law lifting it up and another one pulling it down and here's the thing; so long as the lift upwards is bigger than the downwards, up the plane goes and away it flies with all those people on it.

If at any point the lift upwards diminished and stopped, it would just go into a dive and crash. Now notice this, that while the plane is flying the law of gravity is still there. It did not change. It is still pulling on it. It's just there's a greater lift from something else and it overcomes it. Now the plane or the people in the plane don't work like this; we've got to overcome gravity. We've got to really work hard to overcome gravity. Thou shalt not pull me down! You know? ... [Laughter] ... This is not going to help you. There's only one thing will help that plane stay in the air and that's a greater lift upward and so long as it keeps moving it'll have the greater lift upward. Forward motion and it starts to get a lift and it goes up. Now get this; the only thing that'll keep you victorious over sin is not trying harder not to sin. It's actually having a life inside you that's greater than that, keeps you lifted up so continually you're above it. And if you do fall the occasional time you're quickly back up there, activating that law of life again. So the first thing you've got to recognise, God doesn't condemn you if you fall over. Boom, hit the ground, boom, back up again, quick! Back up again! Up, up, up! Elevate, pull up, pull up! You know, that's what happens in a plane when it starts to go down too near the ground. The cockpit recorders; pull up! Pull up! Pull up!

So you start to find you're losing energy and you're starting to go down into the pit, starting to fall down where you normally would go, before you get there and fall down into that deep hole PULL UP! So how do we pull up? Well there's several things you can do. All of them will activate the movement of the spirit of God in your life.

Here's number one. You notice here it says that you may be filled with the fullness of God, now to Him who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works, the power, the Holy Ghost power works in you, energises you. So how's it going to happen? Here's number one. Number one, pray in tongues. Pray in tongues. Why pray in tongues? Because when you pray in tongues your spirit is praying, your spirit is engaging the Holy Spirit and spiritual life begins to arise in you and flow out of you. It lifts and energises your spirit. Pray strongly. Pray forcefully and pray as much as you can.

Now that would be such a simple thing. Here's the thing - you can pray as much or as little as you like but I tell you, if you stop praying the energy will diminish. You get praying strongly in tongues and you get up and I guarantee if you were to rise up every day and over a period of two or three weeks, build your praying in tongues strongly every day and build it up so you're praying in tongues strongly and forcefully, between 15 and 20 minutes and you're giving yourself into that praying in tongues, you'll start to feel the energy and life flowing. Of course you'll have some reactions from your flesh. It will start to try and pull you down. Old problems will stir up, but you've got the throttle and you're pulling back and as you pray in tongues you are now co-operating with the Holy Spirit and enabling Him to do what He does which is build you up.

It's sort of so simple. It's not even rocket science is it, but it's just in the doing of it you get the results. Pray in tongues, pray in tongues. [Prays in tongues] Pray in tongues [Prays in tongue] Know what you're doing. Let your spirit rise up! Move your body! Pray in tongues 'til you feel your spirit rising up and energy flowing in you. Now that's not all we need to do but it's a great start.

Here's the second thing that we need to do and you find if we just go back - just quickly go back to that Philippians passage again. Is that where we started? Oh, something - there it is. Here it is; now notice here, Verse 13, it said God who works for you both to will and to do good pleasure, do all things therefore without complaining or disputing. Now they go together. Isn't that amazing? When you read verses you should read them together, read them in context and it when it says it's God who's working inside you to will and to do for His good pleasure, so therefore don't go around moaning and whinging and whining! What could be clearer? Moaning and whinging and whining will de-energise you. The complainers always de-energise the atmosphere and they de-energise you if you hang around complaining people.

You have to make a decision, if I hang around complainers and if I give voice to complaining, then there's unbelief is stirred in my heart, the Holy Ghost is quenched. I am being de-energised - oh, oh, oh pull up! Pull up! I'm going to a bad place - so you have to make a decision I will refuse to give in to complaining about anyone or anything. I will refuse acting like a victim and passing judgement and blame on anyone or anything. I will start to do this; I will start to show gratitude and praise the Lord! The Bible tells us in Psalm 69 magnify the Lord with thanksgiving! Make God bigger in your life by magnifying Him, by expressing gratitude for all the blessings you have. So it says in Psalm 69, Verse 30, it says I will praise the name of the Lord with a song. I heard Ray praise the name of this Lord. Did you get stirred up this morning when we had that sound of joy and there was a spirit of faith in that song. Well you see that's what this is talking about; that lifts your spirit, that energises you. How many got energised? See, yeah, you're energised if you decided to but you get energised as you begin to praise the Lord and thank Him, show gratitude. If you were to decide for one week I'm going to do all I can not to complain and to catch my complaining out and I'm going to start to show gratitude to God, gratitude to people, start to thank God for all the things I have, the blessings I have. What a great place to live in and I start to adopt an attitude of gratitude and praise to the Lord continually, you know what will happen? You'll energise the moving of the spirit inside you. I guarantee it. Why? The Bible tells us that's how you access the presence of God. "Come into His presence with thanksgiving, enter His gates with praise" - so I come in being thankful and praising, I can enjoy God.

Now we tend to think of that as just a church service. Oh well, we'll come in and say thank you Jesus and honour Jesus. No - this is how you live in the flow of the spirit. See, Paul and Silas were beaten up. Now they could have said oh, it's not fair. These Romans, you know, they're persecuting us and the devil's out to get us. They didn't say that, they just praised the Lord and there was an earthquake and the whole prison opened up and there was some family got saved. See, New Zealand's got a real issue in the DNA of being negative and critical. You've got to decide that's over for me and if people around me are negative, goodbye. Goodbye. I just want to elevate my life. I don't want to go down into the sinkhole of your negativity and unbelief and complaining. I want to stay in a positive place where I'm enjoying the presence of God and I'm highly energised, because I have a mission to fulfil. You hang around too many negative people and they will de-energise you in pursuing God and fulfilling what God called you to do with your life. It's absolutely certain.

Thing about this is. There's an example of it in the Bible, in Numbers, Chapter 13, where two to three million people lost their way because 10 people just gave a negative critical report. It's written for our learning. There's two things to - you just do those two things to help you a lot. I'll give you two more things, I'll make them real quick. Here's the next one, the third one; learn to tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit and listen to Him and do what He says. Learn to tune in to the Holy Ghost. Why? Because in Galatians 5:6 he who supplies the Holy Ghost and works - there it is, that word again - energises the miraculous or supernatural. How does he do it? By working hard to be a goody Christian or by the hearing of faith? It's the hearing of faith. So every time you tune in to listen to the Holy Spirit and start to do what He's telling you and start to act out on what He's saying, energy comes into your life. You become energised. It says - notice this - it says he who ministers the spirit to you and energises miracles to happen, how does He do it? Does He do it because you just came to church? No. It says it's by the hearing of faith, so when I've stirred my spirit up I must practise constantly and just a moment, just turn in and say God, just speak to me. Holy Ghost, just talk with me. Talk with me Holy Spirit, speak to me - and so you could just, from one minute you could just stop, begin to show gratitude and praise; I want to just thank you, you're a wonderful God. I thank you for your presence here with me Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord, you're in me. I just honour you and welcome you Lord. I open my heart. Now Lord, begin to just speak to me, encourage me, show me some things I need to do.

Now I can immediately start to access the presence of God, but if I let negativity get around me it shuts all of that down. The miraculous flows when you hear the voice of God, so if you want a greater level of the life of the spirit you've got to activate your spirit, maintain an attitude of gratitude and praise, and learn to listen for the small impressions of the Holy Spirit and act on them and you'll start to get in a river of life. You just get it in flow, and the more you act on it the more you get and the flow starts to increase and to grow.

Here's the last one that we need to do. Probably there's more but this is one I felt the Lord put in my heart. You need to learn to give voice to God's word. Now this is something that's incredibly missing among so many believers. In 1 Thessalonians 2, Verse 13 - you get this one; You received the word which we preached unto you not as the word of men. Ah well, who's up preaching on Sunday? Oh okay, well I don't like that preacher, I'll stay home. I don't know if I like that message you know?

He said that you didn't receive it by looking at the people speaking and how they spoke. You received it as it is in truth the word of God which works - there it is - energises or creates activity in your life if you believe it. Now, in Hebrews 4, Verse 2, it tells us they heard the word of God but it didn't do them any good whatsoever because they never believed on it. So believing is not well that's nice, that was a good message, I agree with that. No, no, no. That's not believing. The demons do that - yeah, they believe in God and they tremble, but it doesn't save them. See, believing from a Biblical point of view is that you embrace what you have heard and start to operate it in your life, so to speak the word of God - so when we say speaking the word of God, the word of God works. The word of God works. The word of God releases energy in your spirit. It releases energy in your life. The word of God will activate the Holy Spirit to move.

Remember in Genesis the spirit of God brooded over creation and when the word was spoken the spirit moved. Now that's the first time you see the spirit moving and He moves when the word is spoken with faith. Now think about your own life. If you started to get the word of God in your heart and start to speak God's word over your life and circumstances regularly and consistently, the spirit of God will begin to move in a different way through your life. It's not just that you rabbit on the scripture. You need to wrap your heart in it through meditation and speak it. You see words communicate language, but our voice communicates the spirit, see?

So you can read a scripture and just it's read and then it's gone just like that, but when the word is spoken you manifest your spirit when you speak the word of God, so you notice that most of the miracles in the Bible where the Holy Ghost moved and changed things, someone spoke and they spoke forcefully and strongly. So learn to speak the word of God over your life. Take the Bible and begin to pray scripture; I thank you, I'm accepted in the Beloved, I am redeemed and whom I have forgiveness and so on. You begin to pray the Bible out over your life - I thank you Lord today you're filling me and strengthening me with might in my spirit by the Holy Ghost, today my - and then you start with a scripture and then personalise it and get in a flow of prayer. Your energy will rise massively, so start with a scripture, declaring the scriptures and then begin to pray around that scripture and make it personal. See, the Bible says the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and shall quicken your mortal body. Now take that scripture; I thank you Lord today, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells within me and quickens my mortal body. I thank you Lord - now you see, as I've done that I've meditated and I've held a strong belief that I will give to the Holy Ghost! He will quicken my body with energy and life and I'll stay young and lively and vigorous. People who yield to sin energy will grow old quickly.

People who stay full of the Holy Ghost stay very young and youthful. People who just let sin and negativity get over their life age quickly. It showed - because sin is an energy. Sin causes decay and death. You see some people and you think I can't believe you're only that old. You're carrying on like an old person. It's all in what's going on in their mind and spirit.

Now I know and I understand that sometimes there are physical sicknesses and limitations around people, but it is also true that the spirit of God, when I get it in my spirit, will cause my spirit to come alive and my whole body will respond! Think about that.

So you could take scripture and start to speak it over your life, start to speak; Today I speak over my day, I say this is the day the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in the Lord today! I thank you Lord today, I will bless the Lord at all times! His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make a boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear and be glad! Today Lord I will praise you and bless you!

Now you see you start to get into a flow praying scripture and then before you know it, the spirit is flowing through you. You become highly energised in your prayer, your prayer life changes. If you make sin your focus, failures your focus, faults your focus, sin energy will overwhelm you and depress you and your spirit will not arise and be released. You'll have no lift. You may have done your time but you'll still be on the ground. It's like not getting up enough speed to lift off and it doesn't take much to lift off. All I've got to do is just activate what God has put inside me.

See, you get it again, it's really clear: I can pray in tongues and allow the spirit of God to rise in me. I can praise and demonstrate gratitude to everyone and everything. I can be a very, very happy person thanking people and appreciating people and being glad about what people have done and saying thank you Lord for this great day and lovely people. See, I can do that and my spirit will arise! In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you - not for everything, in everything just be thankful. God, you're with me. Well that's a bit of a downer that thing happened but you know what? I thank you Lord you're going to use it for my good, so I'm going to grow in this. It'll be a stepping stone to something better! Now you see, that gives you a different winning attitude that stirs your spirit, energises you with life - and we need to be energised with life. Isn't that right? Anything less than God will let you down.

1. Introduction

· God is at work in you!

· Phil.1:13 “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”.

· God has planned a purpose for every believer – our responsibility is to discover and fulfil it.

· God is at “work” – within you.

· Work =NT1756= to be active, efficient, mighty, to energise and empower your life.

· We are joined to the Spirit of God – our spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17)

· What does the Holy Spirit do?

· Energise you to will (be resolved or determined) and to do (put forth energy) the things that bring pleasure to God – this is His mission and assignment.

2. Other Forces that Work in You

(a) Sin Works in You

Rom.7:13 “But sin that it might appear sin working death in me”

· “Working” =NT2716= to thoroughly work.

· Rom. 7:5 “For when we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death”.

· Work =NT2716= energeo = to energize, to rouse into activity.

· Sin works to create strong negative energies within us that influence us and bring about death – spiritual isolation and separation from the Life of God.

(b) Evil Spirits can Work in You

Eph. 2:2 “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit now works in the children of disobedience”.

· Evil spirits work =NT1756= energeo = to energise, to rouse into activity.

· Evil spirits work to energise sin and disobedience within the lives of people.

· They use sin (disobedience) as the gateway to enter and ‘energise’ people to live in bondage.

3. How can I co-operate with the Holy Spirit to increase His working in My Life?

(a) His working releases supernatural energy

Eph.3:16-20 “He is able to do more exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us”.

· Power =NT1411= Dunamis = supernatural power and ability.

· He is talking about the Holy Spirit at work with us.

· The working of the Holy Spirit is to strengthen us with ‘dunamis’ in our spirit.

· The key is activating the moving of the Holy Spirit within us.

· The law of life (of the spirit) is what overcomes the law of sin and death.

(i) Speak in Tongues

· 1 Cor.14:4 “When you speak in tongues you strengthen and build your spirit”.

Speak fluently – speak strongly – speak often.

· Speaking in tongues activates your spirit to flow with the Holy Spirit.

(ii) Practise Praise and Gratitude

· Ps. 69:30 “I will praise the name of the Lord with a song, I will magnify Him with thanksgiving”.

· Lack of gratitude and honour creates disrespect.

· Constant gratitude and honour expressed creates room for the Holy Spirit to move.

· Ps. 95:4 “We enter (experience) His presence with gratitude and praise”.

(iii) Tune into the Voice of the Holy Spirit

· Gal.5:6 “He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you does He do it by the works of the Law or the hearing of Faith?”

· Practice turning in to impressions from the Holy Spirit, words, thoughts, pictures.

· Obey promptly – this releases life - tune to spontaneity – tune to flow

(iv) Give Voice to the Word of God

· 1 Thess. 2:13 “…the word of God which works effectively in you who believe”.

· Works =NT1756= Energeo = to energise

· The Word of God works – but only if we respond to it with faith (Heb.4:2)

· We take in the word of God through mediation and speak it forth.

· Jer. 23:28-29 “He who has my Word let Him speak it forth faithfully”.

· Is. 40:9 “Lift up your voice with strength”.

· Words carry information but your voice carries your spirit.

· It’s not what you say but how you say it that releases the anointing. Speaking forth the Word of God stirs your spirit and gives room for the Spirit of God to work in you!

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Forces that work within you (2 of 2)

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Let's open our Bibles then at Philippians, Chapter 1. Last week I started to speak to you, a series just on forces that work within us and let's just pick up the scripture that we started with and I want to pick up one aspect of it and share with you something that's going to help. So here it is in Verse 13 of Philippians, Chapter 2, and it says it is God who works in you. God works in you both to will and to do for or of His good pleasure. In other words it says God energises you. It's the spirit of God that creates energy, passion and motivation in you so this is not just about doing things that'll pep ourselves up and motivate ourselves. There is a reality He says where God's spirit will energise you so powerfully that your mind begins to want, desire and choose the things that are going to please God and your life reflects - you actually end up doing them.

That word to do is the same word, energise, so putting it again it is the spirit of God when He's working in you who energises you to make choices in line with what God has for your life and then energises you to work them out. That's very, very powerful. That's not the experience of most Christians by the way, because these things don't just take place in a vacuum. There's some things we have to do. There's a part we play in co-operating with God. Notice the context, it says you work out your salvation. There are parts we play in it and we looked last week at some forces that work or energise us. Some are very negative, so we looked at sin and we saw that sin works death in us. It actually creates an energy that's quite negative, depressing, brings isolation, brings us into a place where we don't want to be.

We saw also that evil spirits work in us. It's the same word, energise, evil spirits create negative energy flows in our life that depress us, frustrate us, irritate us and strengthen sin working in our life. But we saw also that God works in us and I'll talk a bit more about that but I want to pick one aspect of it that we touched last week and it's found in 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 2. Here it is, in Verse 13; for this reason we thank God (and Paul's saying) without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth, the word of God which also effectively works. There it is again, the word 'works' - the word of God works in people. It may not be working in you but it can do, so don't bring the word of God down to your experience. Have a look at what God says and begin to expect your experience to come up to that.

It tells us that God's word energises us. Now that's interesting, so I always think how on earth does that happen? What part do I play in this, because for a lot of us when we read the Bible we find that you read it and you've read three or four pages or chapters or whatever and then you don't sort of remember much and it hasn't really done much either. Probably you're sleepy by then and that's the experience of many people. But there are some things we can do which will cause God's word to create energy inside us and to effectively strengthen our spirit so our outer life begins to change, but we have to co-operate with God. So God's word can do this - so why can God's word do this? Because Jesus said in John 6:63, the words I speak to you are spirit. So the only thing that can energise your spirit is spiritual substance, something spiritual energises you. Now for example, how many this morning - you may have come in heavy or tired or weary or whatever or problems living, but as we've been in this atmosphere where there's been strong praise and exalting God, felt yourself becoming energised on the inside? How many have found they're quite energised? Very good, a lot of people. That's normal when you come into an experience of worship. That energy is a spiritual energy.

It comes about by the way as you participate, not as you spectate. You can come into a meeting like this and you can be absolutely unmoved by everything. We can be in the most wonderful worship time and God's presence is touching some and He's not touching you. That's because of a failure to participate. It's always about participation. That's why when we come together often it's very slow and sluggish to get started because we kind of come in as spectators and passive, leaning on the musicians to do something for us rather than arising in our spirit to engage with God. That's something we could speak on another time.

I want to speak on this one here of the word of God energising us. The question we have then, how does the word of God energise us? So let's go back into the verse. The first thing is you have to place value on God's word. I wander around, I look around, I watch people coming in. I find how many people don't have a Bible. Now I know we put the words up on there but I like to have a Bible. I like to have my own Bible and I like to mark my Bible and I read my Bible and mark it and take notes of what God is saying, because the word of God can ENERGISE ME! The word of God can bring MIRACLES into my life, you see?

And so I want you to notice something here, the first thing is you have to place value on the word of God. Notice what it says here; you did not receive it as the word of men, so it says something they didn't do and then something they did do. So first of all He said you didn't receive it as the word of men. Now what does it mean by that? Just have a think about what that might mean. If we're talking about some words being the words of men, in other words someone is just sharing their opinions and their ideas - it's a lot of information. You can go on the internet and get a lot of information. You can download words. You can download pages of words, but they may not do you any good whatsoever and particularly in terms of your spiritual life.

They can help or not help. The problem is in how we receive them. Now if you receive just the words of men here's some things that you would automatically think: well it's just his opinion, and so immediately you dismiss the words as having much authority. There's no authority in this. We think then it's just someone's opinion, it's someone's ideas, it's quite interesting information and the attitude is you take it or leave it. So if I agree with it I'll take it, if I don't agree with it I'll leave it and that's the mentality we have with the things that people say. Not only that, many people say things which are either not true or exaggerated so we have a tendency when we hear messages to filter them all through and just pick on little bits that we like or agree with and we're receiving it as if it's the word of men.

Now it says here you did not receive this word as though it was the word of men or just people preaching. You received it as the word of God. Now to receive something as the word of God means I am listening for God to speak to me. In other words it doesn't matter who's up there preaching. I believe that God, if His word is preached with boldness and strength, that I can receive something from the word of God - so in coming into a message I may preach on this - like if I come into a place where someone's preaching, they may be preaching a particular message but I'm listening for what God wants to say through it and I know that at certain points in the message He will start to speak to me and I always have a pad and I write down the things that God is bringing to my attention while I'm speaking. Now that's what it means to receive it as the word of God. Receive it as the word of men, well it's nothing. It's very, very clear from experience that about 70 percent of what you hear you'll forget. That doesn't leave much that you'll remember.

So we can have great messages, but what really counts is what is God speaking to you in the midst of it? You've got to value the preaching of the word, not well who's the preacher? Who isn't the preacher? But what is God speaking to me in the midst of it? Now that's a heart issue. That's why we have worship. It's to prepare the heart and loving God, to be open to respond and hear what God wants to say through whatever message is preached. Otherwise it's the words of men, so you'll look and you'll judge and we have this person preaching; oh well, that's so and so. Oh, that's Pastor Mike or Lyn or so and so - and so what we do is we treat it all as the words of men and we don't come with the right attitude so we can't receive. So it's first that you have to place value that God's word, no matter who preaches it and how badly they preach, can still speak to me. That's nothing to do with how good the preacher is. That's the belief that God's word carries power and that when it's spoken and when it's preached it will have ability to bring about some fruit in my life.

It says in Isaiah 55, my word shall not return to me void. It will not return without doing something - unless of course you actually don't take it in, so it's all in valuing the word of God. So if I treat the message that comes as the word of God, then there's authority in it. There's the power to change my life. There's power to give me hope. In fact out of any place I go, if I would have a right heart and attitude towards God and look past the speaker to listen to the spirit of God, He will speak. He will speak.

I've been in all kinds of places with some of the worst preachers in the world and God still spoke. It had to do with the heart attitude. Getting the idea? So value it.

Notice what it says in Psalm 119, Verse 105; Your word is a lamp. It'll light up my way. In other words or putting it simply, when I'm struggling to know what to do, if I'll just hear your words they will give me inspiration and show me what I need to do. See, there's another one here in Psalm 119, Verse 89; Forever O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. So if God's word says it, it is settled like a decree, demons will yield to it, circumstances will yield to it. It's settled. There's no arguing. It's established in the realm of the spirit. I've got to bring it into the realm of the earth.

In Jeremiah 23:29, Is not my word like a fire? Oh, you imagine a burning, blazing fire. The word of God is like a fire! It's when the Holy Ghost gets it it can start to burn in you. You know, the disciples said when Jesus spoke the word to us, did not our hearts burn inside us? He said is not My word like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rocks? Oh, I was thinking - I was watching some guys working yesterday and they had some big sledgehammers and there's the concrete and I saw this guy, he's got his shirt off and he's got tattoos all up his arm and BOOM-PAH! And I'm watching this thing and BOOM-PAH! And there's nothing - this concrete's just staying solid and then BOOM-PAH! Cracks started to appear and BOOM! Another crack started to appear. Alright, now there's just a big hole where there was concrete - and the Bible says that's what the word of God is like. Every hard situation God's word is like a hammer that can bash it and break it open and shift it. That's what God says His word is about.

Well, you may agree with it or not. You understand? If I don't agree that it's a hammer, then it's not a hammer. It won't be a hammer for me. It'll be a hammer for someone who can believe. If I believe that God's word is the fire, then if I learn how to take it in and get it in my life it can burn inside me 'til I ignite! See?

If I believe God's word is a lamp, then I can get it into my heart and at the right times it'll speak to me, just like that. It'll speak to me if it's in me. It's so important to get the word of God into our lives and hearts. You need the simple skills and the ability to get God's word in. Why? Because the word of God can energise your life mightily, see? That's what God says. See, so you're going to be receiving it right now as the word of God or something else.

Here's another thing. Have a look at this. Look at this, Hebrews, Chapter 4. See how you receive the word depends on whether it can do any work in your life. There's so many aspects of this but we'll just pick up this one here. Look at this, in Hebrews, Chapter 4. Since there remains - in Verse 1 - a promise of them entering His rest, let us fear lest any seem to come short of it. Now here it is: For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as them; but - but, here's the but - Ha ha - But the word they heard did not have any value to them whatsoever and produced not a bit of fruit. Now that's an extraordinary thing to say. Why did it tell us that the word - it says - now He's talking about the Hebrew people coming out of Egypt, redeemed by the blood, walking through the wilderness with the promise of inheritance and this is what the Bible says; They heard the gospel. What did they hear? What gospel did they hear? They heard the gospel of the kingdom, that there is a realm of inheritance for you to possess that advances God's purpose on the earth. They heard the same gospel as we have heard.

The Bible says though it did them no good because of one factor; it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it. Notice what it said: They got the word, but it didn't do them any good. They got the message, but it didn't do them any good. Now why did it not do them any good? Because something was missing in their response and it says they were not joined to it by faith. That word joined is to be mixed. It's to be connected. They were not joined to it by faith. How 'bout that.

So Hebrews 4 - so they missed out on what they could have had because they weren't joined to it by faith. God's word is powerful. Hebrews 4:12, it says it's like a sharp sword. It says it's alive or quick. It's full of the life of God. Hebrews 4:12, full of the life of God, breathed in by the spirit of God. This Bible that you have in your hands or don't have in your hands, men died to get it to you. Men shed their blood to get it to you. They were tortured and burnt and suffered to get this word to you in a written form and the Bible says, Hebrews 4:12, the word of God is quick. It's alive with the life of God. It is sharp. It's sharp like a two-edged sword. In other words it's so sharp it can just penetrate through with one slice, without hacking. I saw in a movie and they were trying to get this guy's head off with a sword - a lot of hacks to get that head off. He said shwoosh! like that. That's what the word does - goes straight to it. Straight to it like that, no hacking with the word of God. ... [Laughter] ... Nice and sharp! See? Bible's full of pictures like that. Some people don't want to think about them because they're too nice - but I'd like to think that when I speak the word of God it'll hike the head off again! That'd be great wouldn't it? See? Sharper than any two-edged sword, quick and powerful. The word powerful means - here it is again - energayo to be energetic or life-giving or energising. See, we tend to love experiences that are created in group situations, but there's something that can only be done in our life with God and that's get His word into our heart. Get His word into our heart - so it's says this word did not profit them. It was no use. It didn't do any good, not because it couldn't do it but because how they responded they did not receive it.

Notice what the Thessalonians said. Here we come to the second thing in 1 Thessalonians Facilitator 2:13; you did not receive it as the word of man but as the word of God which works powerfully in you who believe, so I must first of all value God's word. Your Bible, this Bible you carry, you may not understand all of it. There's a lot of it I don't understand I can tell you now - but there's some I really do and it's the bit you really do you've got to be working on in your life. And you see we can expand what we understand because knowledge comes to those who apply what God has given them already, so I need to receive it as a friend. Take your Bible - this is my friend! It can help me. Bring the word of God near into your heart. Take hold of it, see?

Now here's the problem. With Western thinking it goes something like this; to believe something, I believe it. Alright then. What I mean when I say I believe it, yeah, I read that verse and I agreed with it. That's what we think. That's Western thinking. I looked it up on the internet and I got an article it. It was a good article too, I agreed with that article as well. That is Western thinking and it's informational or cognitive based and we think because I know it that I know it - because our Western thinking is if I've heard that story before then I know it, so if someone stands up and reads a passage - well I know that. Someone tries to share with you about something - I know that. Isn't it great? Good for you. You know so much - but not Biblically. From a Western point of view we've got heaps of information. In fact there's so much information you can overload. The problem is what to do with what you have and in the kingdom of God little is best - a little, because you get a little and put it into place you get more. But if you have a lot of information and don't do anything with it you end up in a bad place because you believe you actually are in a great place with God when you're not.

That's why the core of the Bible says if I don't do the word of God, if I don't apply into my life what God's saying to me, actually I end up quite deceived because I think I'm doing real well because I measure doing real well by the information I know - and I've got three folders worth of Bible notes. I've been to Bible school - I've got a whole folder full of Ian's notes - and the CD!

But you know what? None of this in the end, until it's applied, changes my life. So the Hebrew way of thinking is very simply this; what you are doing is what you know. You understand? What you're doing is what you really believe, see? So we can say we believe all kinds of things. In James, Chapter 2, it says well the demons believe in God [brrrrr!] They really do believe you know but it doesn't save them. So knowing about God and even believing the things about Him, that's one thing - but actually to apply it into your life is where - that's where energy comes. That's where traction comes. That's where real change comes, the day you start to do something you weren't doing before. That's when the change takes place, so the knowledge - there's so much knowledge. You get on the internet today, and on the tv, just there's so many messages but you know what I'm interested in? I'm not interested in all those messages. I'm interested in what God is saying to us here, you understand? Because all those messages may be great and many of them apply to what God is saying in other parts of the world, but what is God saying to us here in Hastings and Napier and Hawkes Bay and New Zealand? That's what's important. That's what you want to be tuned into. What is God saying to us as a community? What is God speaking to us and more important am I hearing it and am I responding? That's what really counts.

Oh, getting all very quiet - and so we saw in Hebrews, Chapter 4 and Verse 2, the word didn't do them any good and I've seen people come into church and be totally transformed. Others come in, been here for years, didn't seem to do them any good at all because of response. Look, I want you to have a look with me in Numbers. Just have a quick look in Numbers, Chapter 14. You can always tell whether the word's impacting people. There's actually evidence of it. There's evidence. Would you believe there's evidence to show if someone's in the word and the word is living in them? Here it is, here it is and let's have a look at the example of Israel. Remember we had the - the Bible just said the word that was preached didn't do him any good. Now they had Moses - imagine having Moses up here every Sunday preaching and you know, the water parts, goes out there and all the traffic stops. He holds his hand up, traffic all stops, everything just is amazing! Puts his hands up and stuff falls down, all manner of things in the meeting - wonderful! However, they saw it all and still didn't believe.

Miracles can assist your faith and power boost it, but they don't necessarily generate faith inside you. The word is what brings faith into your heart and it says clearly they heard the word, saw the miracles and still they never got anywhere. You don't want to be like that, meeting after meeting, Sunday after Sunday, never got anywhere. That's just like spinning your wheels isn't it really? Going nowhere - and so now here's a few things you can tell very clear evidence when unbelief lies in their heart. Now in the Bible when the word uses the word unbelief it's exactly the same as the word translated disobedience, see, so to believe means to do. To not do means to not believe. That's what the Bible says. They hated Him because of unbelief because they actually didn't do what God said to do.

Now have at look at this here. It shows up in their life and the people come back with a negative and evil report. Now look at this, Chapter 14, Verse 1 of Numbers 14; So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and wept that night. And the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation - oh, if only we'd died in the land of Egypt! If only we'd died in the wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword and that our wives and children should become victims? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said let's get another leader and go back there where we're familiar with. Okay, now here's some of the - I don't want to expand, I just want to show you that unbelief always shows up in our life.

Here's the first way it shows up. It shows up with self-pity and self-preoccupation when we face difficulties in life. Difficulties of life, they're common to everyone. How many people are going through a difficulty right now? You're facing some challenging situation? A couple of people. Okay, there's a lot of people facing challenges: financial, family, marriage, personal, all kinds of issues. Here's the thing. How you respond - these things are there to help you grow. How you respond in it is what determines what's going on in your heart. Notice the first thing they did, they felt sorry for themselves; second thing, they started to complain. They gave voice to the unbelief that was in their heart and they found someone to complain about. You hear someone complaining, I hear unbelief. See, if I complain you know what I'm really saying is actually I cannot trust God in the midst of this to work out some good for me and for all of them. That's what I'm saying. That's why we saw in Philippians 2, that Verse we saw, preceding in a mid - or coming straight in context there it said that God is working in you to will and do, He says now do everything without murmuring and complaining. Everything without murmuring and complaining. Now how many heard that today? ... [Laughter] ... How many thought that's for someone I know? ... [Laughter]

See, that's the problem. We sit in here - alright, someone needs to hear that. I best get them that tape. Well what about you? If you've got your attention drawn to it you needed to hear it. You understand? We just think we don't need to, but actually God - our attention gets drawn to it. Then the next thing that comes in, oh, someone else needs to hear that one. Man, I know they need to hear that, I must get them that tape. ... [Laughter] ... And actually God's drawn your attention to it because He wants first of all for you to consider are you the one murmuring and complaining and negatively talking. See?

Now faith is in your heart. You can believe - you know, I've worked for and with and under the most outrageous people. I've always believed that God could do some good in the middle of it all. It's all about keeping your attitudes right. It's only about attitudes.

Third thing you notice there is they started to blame - had to find someone to blame. Hear someone blaming, they're in unbelief I'll tell you right now. A person who's blaming someone else for their misery and problems is a person who's not trusting that God is sufficient for them to help them arise and win the victory in it and then finally they drew back. They started to build walls and defences and drew back from the path of journeying forward with God. Well that's a whole story just of its own, but I don't want to focus there. I want to focus on building the word of God in your life.

Now have a look in Verse 9 at the contrasting attitude of Caleb. Whoa, look at this! He said don't rebel against the Lord. Don't fear the people of the land. They are our bread. Their protection is gone from them and the Lord is with us. Don't fear them! So a person who's got faith in their heart has got confidence that if God has said I can do this and He's going to give us something, it will come about. The fact that there's a giant is there is an inconvenience. It's a temporary obstacle and He calls it or redefines the giant. He redefines it as a Big Mac. Whatever giant you're facing is a Big Mac. It's there for you to eat and grow on. He said these giants are bread for us. They're just actually an opportunity for us to grow because they look much but their power is gone. God is with us. They look much but their power is gone. That problem looks great but the devil's power is broken! God is with you! ... [Applause] ... God is with you! I will never leave you, not forsake you as the word says. I was to meditate, God never leaves me or forsakes me, same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in me. My spirit rises with great strength. See, that's what the word says.

We need the word in our life. Tell someone, bang them, say you should be listening. ... [Laughter] ... Should be listening. Okay, so how am I going to get the word into my heart? Well let me give you some simple keys, very simple. It's not enough just to read it. You've got to build it and incorporate it into your life. That's why if you're an internet scanner you'll be full of information but not much substance. You've got to actually slow down the pace and focus on applying one thing at a time into your life. Things in the kingdom take place one step at a time. There's no big - swamped with information. You go to - one conference a year's about enough for me because if I were to apply what I've learnt it'll take me the rest of the year to do it. If you go from this one to this one, then another one, got me at this one here and all you've got is this big high, zzz zzz zzz - but actually end of the year there's not a lot built. Do you understand? This is what is going on. We're living in an information age and people are buzzed out and overwhelmed with information. Just start to say - if I was to ask you simply this; what two things are you currently working on in your life with God, believing Him for breakthrough? If you can't say anything then you're not in faith because you need some giant or challenge to apply the word of God and stretch your faith over to defeat. That's what ensures you're in faith.

The Bible says examine yourself and see if you're in faith. It says contend for the faith. There's a challenge of us in Christian life, okay and here's a few simple things and now it's not one thing that does it. It's a combination of these things. Firstly, read the word of God. Firstly, listen to the word of - learn to listen to the word of God. Two ways you can listen; why don't you get CDs and just listen to them and people who don't read too well, it's a great way, get them in, just listen to them, listen to them, listen to them. Janice just listens to them for hours and now she's finding she's having encounters with God off what she's listening to and she can remember large amounts of things because she just listens and listens and listens and listens for God to speak.

Put a CD on when you're driving. Let the word of God just be playing while you're wandering around, driving around. Let the word of God come. The other one you can listen to is yourself. Speak the word of God. Pray the word of God. Get the Bible and read out the word of God, give voice to the word of God and listen to what you're saying. That starts to affect you. You are speaking it out for yourself. Second thing is read the word of God, but when you're reading it read with expectation. Ask Holy Ghost - I mean you can't get something - the Bible's not an ordinary book. It's written by someone, written by the Holy Ghost! So what better than to have the author living inside me! Holy Ghost, stir yourself up in tongues. As you get the Bible open it up and say Holy Ghost, I need you to speak to me, draw my attention to something you want to talk to me about today.

You start to read, keep yourself alive, stand up and read as you walk around. If you sit down too long looking you get [snoring sound] Have another cup of coffee and away I'll go again, you know? I just get tired if I sit down too long just looking at something. Get it and start to pray; Holy Ghost, speak to me. Read it out loud, see? Another thing you need to do is to meditate in the word of God. Now when you meditate in the word of God all of your brain is active. Your whole heart engages with the word. When you're studying only the left part of your brain is active. A lot of people will read it and then will study it, but actually don't take time to reflect on it and muse over it. In Psalm 39, I think Verse 3, David says as I mused or meditated the fire began to burn. Now to meditate takes a bit of time and it takes a bit of discipline because everything in you wants to get busy. It's hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, quick, tell me, give me the message now, quick. You need to read it and you go - now you see this kind of lifestyle is not a spiritual lifestyle.

You've actually got to find and create moments to slow down your whole inner being so you can begin to ponder the word of God and let it get into your heart and the first area of difficulty you'll have in doing that is your mind will race, your body will race. You've got to just begin to bring them down, say no, I love the word of God. God is speaking to me out of His word and you begin to meditate. To meditate just take it and begin to imagine it, so read a story two or three times or read a Verse if you're drawn to a Verse, start to ponder it, start to just go over it and over it. Then begin to ponder on the Verse, look at it and imagine it, see what it would be like if it was true in your life. Allow your heart and mind and soul to welcome it like a friend into your life. Allow your imagination to begin to flow. Let the Holy Spirit quicken things.

I found with some of the stories for example, as you meditate on them and dwell on them for a while they get a life of their own. They begin to talk with you, so meditate on them. See what is God wanting me to do? If I was - say for example just a simple truth. I'm redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Well of course for most people the word redeemed has no meaning whatsoever and a lot of Christians, it's got no meaning at all. Now the blood, covered by the blood. Now you see that's a lovely church term, but what does that mean inside? See if I don't have a way of engaging with what that means it won't mean anything except oh, we're redeemed by the blood and the person's thinking yeah, we are, we're redeemed by - let's sing about it! Well singing about it is good, but it's not a substitute for embracing the truth in your heart - I am totally ransomed. Everything that needs to be paid has been paid, so I can belong to God and walk close and intimately with Him and stand in His presence totally free of any corruption, disease or any decay in my life! I stand there now totally clean before God! That's what it means.

So imagine that and ponder on that and let that get into your heart and wrap around yourself the truth of standing before God absolutely innocent and free. Let that truth change you on the inside. It takes time for truth to come settle in because a lot of other things we believe in our heart - so the beliefs of the heart are shifted by putting in the truth and breaking free or renouncing or letting go the things which have been dear to us which we have believed.

See a lot of people don't pray. I'll tell you why they don't pray. It's not because we don't know how to pray, because in our heart one of two things is happening; one, we're overwhelmed with problems or two, we don't believe if we pray that anything will happen. So I don't think I'll go to prayer. Why? Because I do not believe that the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man will avail much - or putting it more personal, I do not believe that when I pray something will happen. And because we've had disappointments and setbacks and we haven't processed them, we haven't meditated and engaged with God to keep our heart in faith, so keeping our heart in faith. You did not receive it as the word of men but as in truth it is the word of God which energises those who believe it!

So we begin to build these disciplines into our life, then we need to learn to speak or declare the word of God. There's nothing more powerful than speaking the word of God. How bless the Lord over my soul, bless the Lord over my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord over my soul - you start praying that your life starts to come up. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord. Start to speak the word of God, see? Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, see - nor sits in the seat of the scorners but who's delight is in the law of the Lord. In His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like the tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in season, who's leafs shall not wither. I like to get in the spirit when I'm praying and see it and picture it. If you memorised it like that, one, you can pray it; two, you can pray it and then personalise it, see? The word of God is powerful - and I've got to get it into my heart by repetition, meditation, confession. I've got to get it out of my mouth speaking - the Bible says the world we see was framed or created or formed by the words God spoke, that if I give voice to His words I shift the spiritual atmosphere around me and I begin to shape my world.

People just forget it all the time. We just keep forgetting it. Think of all the miracles. They were all done when Jesus spoke a word - all miracles done, Jesus spoke something and in the speaking forth - that's why when you come into church, come into a gathering, one thing we need to be is vocal. I need to give voice to my praise! I may not have a very good voice, I may have a hopeless song to sing, but there's enough people who will drown it all out and I won't worry anyway. I'll get a new voice in heaven. Don't worry about it. I'd rather you sang or clapped or did something to exalt God, see?

Then finally I need to look, what must I do to put this word into action? In other words begin to ponder, if I really believe that word how would I be operating in my life that is different now? What would I do that would be different? So take one area of your life, search God for a word on it, meditate, memorise the scripture, begin to meditate in it, begin to pray in it, begin to see what it would be like in your life. Speak it out over your life and then walk out day after day just doing that one thing that would make your life different. You'll find changes start to take place. They will take place and you will find oh my! The word of God does energise me - because when problems come the word will come up that you've memorised. When a difficulty comes up, the word of God comes up, back into your mind and if you'll give voice to it you feel the energy come again.

There is nothing like the word of God to energise the spiritual man. The word energises your spirit and when you are strong in your spirit you prevail over the stuff in your soul and your emotions and your thoughts and your mind, because the life of God is inside you. Amen! ... [Amen.] ... Hallelujah. Don't you just love the word of God? Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, my words will never pass away! His word, His word. Mary said be it done to me according to your word. Peter said - and nevertheless at your word I will lower the nets and he saw a miracle. See, get the word into your life.

Here's the thing; listening will not get the word into your life, not just that by itself. You've got to do something. Let's just arise in our hearts, say I'm going to get into the word of God, I'm going to start to give myself to it.

Hey, this term we've got Word Life coming up. You don't know how to look up a concordance, don't know how to get into the word, you'd better come along and get trained. There's plenty of - Joy's wonderful at teaching this. She's going to help us in that area of learning about the word. I'll share some keys no doubt over the next few weeks. I want you to become a lover of God's words, let God's words be in my mouth, in my heart, on my lips. Let the word of God be here. Amen. You say Amen to that? Listen, just before we finish there may be someone here who doesn't know Jesus Christ. This would be a great day for you to get saved, a great day for you to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We'd love you to come up after the service and talk with us or talk with someone near to you about what it means to follow Christ, to walk with Him, have a life connected to God and with purpose in your life. We'd love you to know how to do that - but church, why don't we arise? Why don't we arise and let's magnify God together. Bless the Lord oh my soul, oh and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul. He'll forgive all your inequities, He'll draw you to victory.

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1. Introduction

· Last week we identified spiritual forces that work in you – energize and empower you.

· 1 Thess 2:13 “…when you received the Word of God which you heard of from us, you received it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectively works in you that believe”.

· “Effectively Works” =NT1754= Energeo – to energize, to be active, to rouse into activity.

· God’s Word is unique – it has power to transform your life, to energize you with the life and power of God.

· God’s Word can energize you to overcome adversity, setbacks, temptations.

· Jn.6:63 “The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life.

· God’s Word is breathed on by the Holy Spirit and has power to energize spirit, soul and body.

2. Place Value on the Word of God

· 1 Thess. 2:13 “… received it not as the word of men”.

(a) Word of Men

= someone’s opinion, ideas – may be true or not, information.

= opinion only and having no real authority.

= I can take it or leave it – useful information.

(b) Word of God

= Source is Almighty God Himself.

= comes with power to create.

= comes with power to overcome.

= comes with power to transform me.

· Ps 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”.

· Ps 119:89 “Forever Oh Lord your Word is settled in heaven”.

· Jer. 23:29 “Is not my Word like a fire says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces”.

· Heb. 4:12 “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.

· Living =NT2198= Zao = alive with the life of God.

· Powerful =NT1756= Energeo = to energize, to rouse into activity.

· Sharp =NT3091= to cut in a single blow instead of hacking repeatedly.

· Piercing =NT1331= to penetrate right through.

· Discerning =NT380= to distinguish the core motivations.

3. Believe the Word of God

(a) 1 Thess 2:13 “received” …”believe”

· How you receive – respond to the Word of God is important.

· Receive =NT3880= to receive near as a friend, become intimate with.

· To take hold of for yourself and make your own = incorporate into your life.

· Believe =NT4100= to place confidence and trust in and act upon.

Note:

(i) Western Thinking: Believe = to agree with = I know that!

James 2:9 Demons believe and tremble! But not saved!

(ii) Hebrew Thinking: Believe = to incorporate into life and act upon.

Obedience = from heart that is convinced.

(b) Example of Israel

· Heb. 4:2 “…the Word which they heard did not profit them; not being mixed with faith in them that heard it”.

· Mixed =NT4781= to combine, assimilate, blend together.

· Numbers 14:2 Unbelief = Disobedience (Failure to put into action) (Heb.3:19)

Evidences Self-pity = “Wept”

Complaining = “murmured”

Blaming = “murmured against Moses”

Drew Back = “stopped pressing forward in obedience

· Num.14:9 Active faith speaks and acts boldly and receives God’s power.

4. Build the Word of God in Your Life

· Not enough just to read and hear – must be joined to the Word by faith.

· So often people read Bible like a book and quickly forget – no impact.

(a) Listen to the Word of God (Rom.10:7)

· CD’s

· Pray the Word aloud and listen to the words you speak.

(b) Read Word with Expectation (1 Thess. 2:13)

· Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

· Read without distractions.

· Notice words, phrases, sentences that stand out to you.

· Focus on that and pray and reflect on it – ask the Holy Spirit to speak.

(c) Meditate on the Word (Ps. 39:3)

· Ponder on the Word – picture it in your imagination.

· Embrace it as truth – imagine it at work in your life.

· Determine to respond to what God says.

(d) Speak forth the Word (Heb.10:23)

· Declaring the Word of God shapes the Spirit World and impacts your spirit.

· Wrap heart around the word and speak it forth meaningfully.

· Speak it forth – not just think about it.

(e) Apply the Word of God

· James 2:22-25 – Put the Word into actions!

Table of Contents

Forces that Work in You (1 of 2)

Forces that Work in You (2 of 2)