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Mindblowing

3 Part Series

Mindblowing

September 27, 2015 • Pastor Bert Pretorius

Mind blowing! Acts 2:7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? (NKJV) The outpouring of the Holy Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts marks the birth of the Church, one of the most important historical events that ever took place. When we consider the account of these happenings a few things immediately become evident. Firstly the newborn church started out with ordinary people that received the Holy Spirit and through this were transformed into world changers! Right from the very first moment, the church started growing because every bystander was completely amazed by the way in which God moved in and through the believers. Through the working of the Holy Spirit, the believers reached out across the boundaries of language and culture and people of every walk of life, ethnicity, age group and background were included in the ever-increasing number of believers. As God’s children it is imperative that we understand that He called us to be extraordinary. Our lives on earth should consistently yield tangible evidence of the goodness and power of God. God’s involvement in our lives (through the working of the Holy Spirit) sets us apart in the way we think, operate and do life. Because of this, our lives should look different from people who are not serving God. The only way in which this becomes possible is by aligning our focus with God’s perspective as we find it in the Word (Matthew 6:23). Only when we do this, can we start living lives guided by the Holy Spirit and completely set apart for the will and purpose of God. The Church of Acts caused a general uproar in their community. Not only did people marvel at what they saw in the lives of the believers, they were also moved to talk about it. Their lives shouted out in testimony to the astounding God that they served. Their everyday-ordinary-lives were such that it overwhelmed people around them with an awareness of God. Some people responded in awe, some in mockery and some in confusion but nobody was left unresponsive! Rather than reflecting their ordinary selves, they accurately reflected through the way they interacted and lived, who God is. Since the Church of Acts serves as a model of what God wants the Church to look like, it goes without saying that this should still be the norm today. If our lives are not such that it prompts people to be amazed to the point of speaking about it, it means that we are missing the mark. The key to living a mind blowing, extraordinary, God-reflecting kind of life is found in Acts 1:8 where we find the promise that the baptism of the Holy Spirit goes hand-in-hand with receiving power. As a result of the indwelling Spirit of God, we will become witnesses – people with first hand experience of the power of God in our lives. Without the Holy Spirit, we do not have the power or capacity to live exceptional lives. In fact, an absence of the Holy Spirit in our lives leaves us prone to sap power and energy rather than live dynamic lives that empower and inspire others. In Ephesians 5:18 the Apostle Paul likens a life lived under the influence of the Holy Spirit to someone who is under the influence of wine – such a person loses all fear of people and manifests behaviour and confidence in accordance with the substance they abused rather than their actual personality. Likewise, we should yield to the Holy Spirit in such a way that our own personalities, limitations, fears and scruples fall away. When this happens, there are certain things that will immediately become evident in our lives. People that live under the influence of the Holy Spirit can confidently (Acts 2:42 Ephesians 5:19): • Speak the Word • Have a song in their hearts • Engage in consistent thanksgiving to God • Submit to one another Does a mind blowing, amazing, extraordinary life not sound so much better than mundane and ordinary living? Why settle for less than what God has for you? Choose today to say ‘yes’ to God’s call to live a life that astounds and amazes those around you. Join us at 3C as we step out in faith and commit to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit so that we can make an impact on our communities that will last for many generations to come – just like the original Church in Acts!

Mindblowing Part 2

October 4, 2015 • Pastor Bert Pretorius

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (NKJV) Considering the early Church as described in the book of Acts, it is evident that their lifestyle and their way of doing church and life was such that it revolutionized the entire religious culture of not only their own time, but also of all the generations to come. They were a positive, joy-filled, grateful group of people that lived for God and each other and actively pursued loving and helping those around them in whichever way was needed. Normal, ordinary people experienced, lived and did mind blowing things simply because they moved from knowing about the Holy Spirit to engaging in intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. Erroneously many people think of the Holy Spirit as an invisible force or mysterious power but the Bible introduces Him to us as a person, someone with whom we need to be in a deeply personal relationship if we want to live the spectacular life God has planned for us (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit, honoured and treasured as the senior partner in a relationship, provides divine counsel, guidance and help that can transform any average, ordinary life into a mind blowing, breath taking display of the power, the goodness and the love of God. The Holy Spirit does not impose Himself on anybody. If we want to walk in the fullness of what God has for us, we have to willingly and deliberately engage in building and increasing in our relationship with the Him. Merely knowing about Him on an intellectual level does not in any way equate having a relationship with Him. In the same way that studying the life of a famous person by reading their biography does not afford us the privilege of saying that we knew the person, simply reading the Bible or listening to other people’s testimonies about the Holy Spirit does not mean that we know Him. Just like the disciples in Acts 2, God wants us to advance from knowing about the Holy Spirit to actually experiencing Him. God wants us to personally connect and relate to the Holy Spirit. Only when this happens can we truly align our own hearts with the heart of God and start experiencing first hand the power of God in operation. Without knowing the person of the Holy Spirit we can never really know the power of the Holy Spirit. God has called us to testify about our own personal experiences of this power. He wants us to live lives that cannot but elicit a response from those seeing it. Such a life cannot be lived on hear-say-stories. It demands a life in which the manifest power of God is personally experienced and visible all the time. In Romans 15:18-19 the Apostle Paul goes as far as saying that he will not dare to speak of anything other than what the Lord has done through him personally. We have been called to move with the Holy Spirit at all times (Matthew 10:6, Hebrews 2:3-4). When we do this, signs and wonders very simply become the natural outflow of a life lived in obedience and submission to the anointing of God. Instead of requiring God’s blessing on what we want to do, we can then start following God’s direction and so step into God’s plan and purpose where the blessing of God automatically flows. Even though we love God and want to bring people to salvation, we do not have the capacity to change people’s hearts or to save even one person. The Holy Spirit is the only one that can work conviction in people’s hearts (John 16:8). Only when we work with Him can we be instrumental in helping others to see and connect to the Lord. In order for us to be effective, we have to be in constant connection with the Holy Spirit, we need to never stop praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17). As with any relationship, the connection wanes with lack of contact. More than just a spiritual inclination to think about God all the time, this is a practical involvement, a constant asking after the direction and will of the Holy Spirit. It requires of us to consistently open ourselves up, lay our lives before Him and yield to the guidance we receive from Him through obedient action. When we do this, our very beings are transformed and the fruit of our lives become such that it can be termed mind blowing, astonishing, amazing, marvelous… Why settle for an ordinary, average life if you can live a life beyond what you ever thought or imagined? Choose today to partner with the Holy Spirit in every area and facet of your life – a life dedicated and yielded completely to the direction of God. May our everyday-ordinary-lives consistently bear witness to the mind blowing, astounding power and beauty of the God we serve!

Mindblowing Part 3

October 11, 2015 • Pastor Bert Pretorius

Galatians 5:22 But the Fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (NKJV) God created every single person with the inherent potential to live a spectacular life. The calling placed upon us is for greatness. God wants His children to live mind blowing, astonishing lives. For this purpose He gave us the Holy Spirit that floods our lives with who God is and what He does. As a result of His presence in our lives we have power (Acts 1:8) and the capacity to boldly testify to the goodness of God as we personally experience and see it. When the Holy Spirit becomes the senior partner with executive power in our lives, we become channels of the power and vitality of God. A Holy Spirit filled person charges the atmosphere with God’s presence rather than sapping life out of those around them. If we yield to the direction of the Holy Spirit in us, we become encouragers (Ephesians 5:18), people that are filled with gratitude and that stand out from the rest because of the different way in which we live. Whether we live extraordinary or average lives is solely dependent on the extent to which we are connected to the Holy Spirit. Just like a cellphone that can make or receive calls at any time as long as it is within range of the network tower, we can operate in the power of the Holy Spirit at any time as long as we remain connected. This connection requires of us to be ever vigilant and sensitive to hear His voice and to respond to it with immediate obedience. A life of intimate connection and obedience to the Holy Spirit bears fruit in the form of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (Galatians 5:22). The deeper we enter into a relationship with God (through our relationship with the Holy Spirit), the more evident these things should be in our lives. Time in the presence of God changes us (John 15:1-27) so that we no longer rely on happenings or circumstances to determine our state of mind and way of living, but rather find ourselves complete and overflowing with joy in His presence. The presence of God fills us with unspeakable, steady joy that attracts people. It is in the presence of God that we are pruned and shaped in order for us to grow into all that He intended for us to be. The first requirement for living a joy-filled life is to step into a constant connection with the Holy Spirit where He cleans our hearts and renews the joy of God in us (Psalm 51:10). Joy is not a synonym for happiness. It is different from the emotion of happiness in the sense that it stands completely separate from what is happening. It is a lifestyle that sprouts forth when we realize that we are no longer subject to sin. We find fullness of joy nowhere but in the presence of God (Psalm 16:1-11). Psalm 100:1-5 provides us with the protocol we need to enter into the presence of God. The door to His presence is opened through thanksgiving and praise. In the original translation the word ‘halal’ is used to describe this particular form of praise. It speaks of an eruption, exuberance, noise and enthusiasm. When we praise God passionately, with everything in us, it eradicates our flesh, shuts down the self and boldly declares that God is sovereign in our lives. This attitude and way of being paves the way for God to work and move in our lives. Since our flesh is always contrary to what the Lord wants we have to subdue it and set it aside by deliberately making our praise louder than all the arguments and reasonings in our minds. Once our full attention is focused on who God is and what He wants and does, we can enter into worship and allow the Holy Spirit to accomplish in us whatever He wants to. Are you tired of living an average life, desperate for the presence of God? Then make a deliberate decision today to praise and worship God with everything in you. Make it your most important priority to live in authentic, consistent intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Let go of all perceived comfort and personal preferences, commit your entire self to Him and step into the beautiful Presence where normal becomes mind blowing and mediocre turns into extra-ordinary!