BUILDING UP THE CHURCH – THROUGH PRAYER

MATTHEW 16:18
And I also say to you that you are Peter [petros], and on this rock [petra] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Christ spoke of building His church even before it was realized. He made the statement while He was still dealing with Israel – though the nation was rejecting His claim to be the Messiah.

For the last two thousand years He had been adding “daily such as should be saved” (ACTS 2:47). In these last days, He is looking to complete His bride, bringing in those last few souls that in His Omniscience knows who will receive Him as LORD and Savior.

May we labor with our LORD, His yokefellow, in the fields which are white already for harvest, praying that He will send even more laborers to rescue precious souls that He died for (JOHN 4:35-39).

One of the ways that we encourage spiritual growth is through prayer, an underestimated heavenly power that too many Christians neglect – either not appreciating its value, or not knowing exactly how to pray…

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FIVE GREAT LIGHTS PART ONE - H u m a n i t y I s W i t h o u t E x c u s e by Sonny Islas

These five great lights refer to five undeniable ways in which God has clearly revealed Himself to humanity leaving everyone without a valid excuse at the Great WhiteThrone Judgment of God (found in REV 20:11-15).

HEBREWS 9:27 warns all by saying
“…its appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”

No one who stands before God at the final judgment will be able to honestly say “I could not know that You existed.” Or “It was impossible for me to know for sure that You existed and that I was supposed to humble myself in Your presence.” Those lame words will carry no weight on judgment day. And these five great lights will prove that to be true. Again, no excuses on judgment day.

The five great lights are as follows (for each one of these LIGHTS, we will include a hyperlink to the corresponding teaching that pastor Sonny gave at SHINE BRIGHT Church):

1. THE LIGHT OF CREATION.

2. THE LIGHT OF CONSCIENCE.

3. THE LIGHT OF CONDEMNATION.

4. THE LIGHT OF COMMANDMENTS.

5. THE LIGHT OF CHRIST.

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The HEART Of PRAYER – PRAYER of the HEART

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF E.M. BOUNDS ON PRAYER -568 pgs. Buy it used on THRIFT Books under $10. New on AMAZON for $17.00, or all eight books in one volume which amounts to just over $2 per book!!

The Necessity of Prayer, The Essentials of Prayer, The Possibilities of Prayer, The Reality of Prayer, Purpose in Prayer, The Weapon of Prayer, Power Through Prayer and Prayer and Praying Men

21 DAYS OF TRANSFORMING PRAYER – Daniel Henderson; 102 pgs. For $6.00. Doing FB videos each week for all 21 installments.

Jesus went to the Cross to die – why? For our sins only? Not only for our sins, but upon His giving up of His Spirit, the veil in the temple was torn, top to bottom, signifying that by His resurrection He imparts to us new life and the Spirit dwells no longer in stone buildings, but in hearts of Christ’s disciples!
Thus by faith in Christ and His Gospel we become born again; we receive the new nature – the holiness of Jesus begins to grow in us “Little by Little”.

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TRIUMPHANT TRILOGIES – Examining JOHN 12,13 & 14 – PARTS 2 & 3

Continuing in JOHN 12, but first a bit of recap from PART 1:

Our understanding of the Word of the LORD is always dependent on the Holy Spirit, and where the disciples were confused at first about the death of their Messiah, once Christ was glorified – and the Holy Spirit was sent forth to indwell all those of faith (JOHN 14:26; 20:22), that’s when they remembered all that was written about Him.

The raising of Lazarus from the dead was just another proof that Jesus was and is exactly what He claimed to be! Out of frustration the Pharisees complained among themselves that “the world has gone after Him!” I love it! GO GOD!! Any who attempt to fight GOD will only succeed in hurting themselves!

PROVERBS 8:35-36
35 For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD; 36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death.

My heart is torn in two when I think about all that our precious, dear, tender-hearted Savior went through in redeeming us to GOD. The thought that the pure, sinless, innocent Savior Who is the embodiment of love and truth should suffer the utter humiliation and shame in bearing all of our sins – ugly, wretched, putrid, gross, vile sins upon His righteous soul…

It brings me to tears of sorrow – and also tears of humble gratitude, because if not for this Holy Mission to save us all, we would be with no hope whatsoever! I’d be rightly damned for my sins.

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"The Evangelist Poem" by Clinton Hester - Commentary by James Fire

It is my greatest pleasure and joy to present to our readers a remarkable young man, a saint of GOD, a child of the Father, a disciple of Christ who also happens to be a spiritual son in the faith to me; something akin to apostle Paul with his beloved son Timothy.

This is Clinton Hester, a man of many GOD given talents and abilities. What I admire and respect about him most is what I observed about him upon our first meeting:

He takes his faith quite seriously! He loves the LORD intensely and for good reason: the LORD has forgiven him of much!

This hip-hop tune is something he wrote a while back and while I'm not particularly fond of hip-hop or rap music in general, I can't help but love this, because of the truth that overflows from these lyrics, so artfully expressed!

The lyrics to The Evangelist Poem will be in larger font, my commentary is smaller font and indented.

Included at the end is the video where you can listen to his song for yourself. So, without further delay, here it is!

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A TTUF EXAMINATION OF HEAVEN – PART FOUR & Conclusion: The Third Heaven

Having completed the Introduction and Part One of this series, along with Part Two and Part Three, we have examined some preliminary points of GOD’s creation, then looked at the First Heaven – our atmospheric domain, and the Second Heaven – the celestial realm. We know a great deal about the First and some things about the Second.

However, we have no way of examining the Third Heaven – the dwelling place of the Most High GOD – apart from divine revelation such as the apostles Paul and John were given (as well as Isaiah in the Old Testament) or by studying what Scripture says about it (the latter being far more likely in this day and age).

In looking at some websites, and some of what Scripture has to say, it seems that in one perspective the Third Heaven is an extension of the celestial realm, one step removed to a higher plane where GOD sometimes manifests. Others see the Third Heaven as completely non-physical in the sense that its independent of the creation of our physical universe and where GOD in all of His glory dwells perpetually.

I subscribe to the latter perspective.

So, we will look at what Scripture has to say about the Third Heaven according to Paul, John, Isaiah, and elsewhere in Scripture where this dwelling place of the Almighty is mentioned.

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