City of Refuge Fellowship

Remembering is always supposed to be for a future purpose! Looking back with longing diminishes today and overshadows tomorrow. I cannot fulfill my purpose for today if I wish I was in yesterday. Passover was a look ahead to the Messiah by way of the deliverance from Egypt. The Lord’s Supper is a look ahead to Jesus’ return by way of His death and resurrection. When we partake the bread and the wine of communion, we are giving thanks for Jesus’ death and resurrection by applying them to our current lives, living in change and transformation and longing for His return. My prayer today is that we will give thanks by looking to the future. That we will be those in the Bride that join with the Spirit and cry out to Jesus, “Come!”

In Psalm 37:5 David wrote “Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Today we will discuss three key points that make us ready to take part in the harvest that God has planned: Commitment, Trust and Waiting.

What does it mean to commit our lives to the LORD?

How does trust protect me from and heal me of disappointment?

What is the role of waiting in preparing for harvest?

My prayer today is that we will see from Scripture that waiting builds trust and trust leads to commitment and commitment prepares us to be the laborers that the harvest field has been waiting for. May we be found not watching the harvest, but int he middle of the fields rejoicing over the abundance that is being gathered and feasting over the goodness of God’s timing!

Mark 6 tells us the story of Jesus’ miraculously feeding the 5,000. The miracle of this story is often viewed simply as the multiplication of food, but there is so much more at work here. Jesus chooses to set Himself, His needs and His desires aside for the sake of a people that are in need. Mark writes that Jesus and the Apostles were trying to go to a “deserted” place so that they could have time together to share what had happened in and through the 12 as they had gone out in ministry, and also to be able to mourn and process the death of John the Baptist. When they arrived at the “deserted” place they found more than 5,000 people there waiting for them. Jesus looked out at that crowd and instead of being frustrated that they had found Him, or disappointed that His planned time of quiet and fellowship had been interrupted, Mark says that He “was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.” Instead of seeing the crowd for what they were taking from Him, He saw them for what they lacked that He could provide. That is the definition of compassion.

As we live we are surrounded by people that are like sheep without a shepherd. We are surrounded by people that are left to their own devices. We can evaluation how they got to this point, we can examine whether or not this was by their choice or someone else’s failure, but the compassion of Jesus looks past the circumstances and sees the hearts of men and then sees that within Him is the answers that they need and the help that they lack. Our focus today is on our response to the world, community and even family around us. Are we moved with compassion or are we hardened with frustration? The feeding of the 5,000 was the outcome of Jesus’ compassion, my prayer today is that we would see God work miracles through our lives for the world around us, but miracles are birthed out of compassion. Lord, give us hearts like yours that we might walk in your love, pour out your glory and see the fulfillment of your desire of redemption for the people that you have placed in our lives.

One of my favorite chapters in the Gospels is Mark 5. This one chapter tells us of three different miracles that Jesus performed, but it is not the power of the miracles that move as much as much as Jesus’ love and concern and kindness that He shows to those that He touches in this chapter. In the course of the chapter we find Jesus being sought out by three desperate people. Three people that have lost hope, that have no other alternative and no one else to turn to, either see Jesus from a distance or hear of Him from others and choose to seek Him out believing that He is the answer to their desperation.

Our study today is not one of being desperate for God nearly as much as it is being the representation of Jesus to the desperate that surround us. I am of the belief that we in the Body of Christ have spent far too long trying to reach for the hem of Jesus’ garment when in fact we are equipped and called to become the hem of His garment for the world around us. Why would we need to reach for the hem of His coat when we have been clothed with His righteousness? Why would we need to reach out for a touch of His hand when we have been filled with the reality of His Holy Spirit? Our challenge today is to become the salt of the earth, the light of the world and a city on a hill that we might move forward into the greater things that Jesus has promised by becoming the hem of His garment that the desperate of our community and our world can reach out to and receive the freedom, healing and salvation that are only found in Christ.

Have you ever felt like the things around you were keeping you from fulfilling the will of the Father for your life? Have you ever had experiences and circumstances that seem to be holding you back from what you believe God has created and called you to be? In Mark 4, Jesus and the apostles got in a boat and started an 8 mile journey to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. In the midst of the journey Jesus laid down and went to sleep. As Jesus slept a great windstorm started, it rocked the boat and created waves that began to splash and fill the boat with water. The disciples did everything they knew to do but nothing seemed to slow the water that was filling the boat and then finally, in desperation and frustration and fear they woke Jesus up and said “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus rose from his nap and commanded the storm to stop, immediately everything that was once out of control was calm, and then He rebuked the disciples, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you still have no faith?”

What the disciples discovered is something we may also need to find, and that is that their external circumstances were being used by God to reveal the internal hindrances to His will in their lives. Their problem wasn’t the storm, it was their fear, it wasn’t the wind it was their lack of faith. I encourage and challenge each of us today to allow the difficulties in our lives to reveal our hearts and give God the opportunity and the freedom to change our hearts rather than demanding that He change our circumstances. Storms are real, difficulties need attention, but it is only our hearts that hinder us from God’s will. May we give our hearts fully to God and let Him lead us unhindered, in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

This past Sunday we had an extended time of worship that was absolutely beautiful. During that time the Holy Spirit led some people to pray and to share some things that were on their heart. After this time I did not feel it was appropriate or necessary to preach the sermon I had prepared and so instead I just shared a few things that had been on my heart regarded prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Most of these thoughts are out of Luke 11 and Romans 8. I pray that this recording was able to capture the atmosphere of worship and the presence of the Holy Spirit from which these thoughts were spoken.

One of the most common attacks on our prayer lives is frustrating and difficult circumstances immediately following great times of prayer. In Mark 9, during a time of prayer Jesus was transfigured and visited by Moses and Elijah in the presence of Peter, James and John. After one of the most amazing experiences of Jesus’ ministry He is immediately faced with a scene that could have produced great frustration. He came down from the mountain and found his disciples arguing with the religious scribes and a crowd of people gathered around making a great commotion. The source of all of this was a man that had brought his demon-possessed son for Jesus to heal, but the disciples that were there at the time were unable to cast the demon out. The scene was emotion-packed, filled with argument, with disappointment, with opinion and probably even with a bit of confusion–Jesus stepped in and didn’t address any of the emotions or frustratin, instead He spoke to the source of all the issue, a lack of faith. Jesus ministers to the father, heals the son and then teaches his disciples. As we study this passage I believe that Jesus teaches us that unbelief is manifested by prayerlessness and that faith is expressed through devoted, faithful prayer. My hope for today is that we will let the Holy Spirit teach us the truth of the Word of God and that we will be convicted, stirred and pressed inot lives of devoted prayer that overcomes every frustration, disappointm

Sometimes our greatest victories are followed closely by what feels, in the moment, like even greater failures. Peter experienced this as it is recorded in Matthew 16. Peter went from boldly declaring “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” to hearing Jesus rebuke him, “Get behind Me Satan.” How do we go from victory to failure so quickly? Maybe the better question is how do you stop going from victory to defeat so quickly? Six days after Jesus had to rebuke Peter so sharply He took him, along with James and John to be a part of an experience that just may answer that question. As Peter, James and John stood with Jesus and witnessed His transifguration they suddenly heard a voice from heaven that I believe, gives us the answer to many of our questions and the key to living in “increase”, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well please. Hear Him!” The voice of God is the key to our lives.

When Peter had boldly declared Jesus as the Christ, he celebrated with Jesus as He declared that Peter had spoken according to revelation from the Father in heaven and not of his own will or understanding. When he was rebuked by Jesus it was because he had just as boldly, declared to Jesus not what had been revealed by God but instead what he had gathered through the information of man. So our question today is somewhat simple, are we acting upon, believing for and declaring the revelation of God or the information of men?

God’s voice through the Word of God and through the Spirit that dwells within us is the key to walking in freedom, to walking in obedience and to choosing to delight in the Lord and in the Lord alone? Our greatest need for increase today is to increase in hearing God. I pray today that we will dedicate our hearts, our minds, our ears and our time to listening to God’s voice

The book of Ephesians ends with the Apostle Paul imploring us to stand, wearing the armor of God, praying always. Often when we read the last chapter of Ephesians we get so interested in the armor of God that we miss the calling, to stand in prayer. I believe that Paul has written this entire letter to give us this one last command. All that he taught: Jesus’ position as Lord of all, our position as being blessed in and through Jesus, the enemy’s position as defeated yet deceptive and our calling to be the church, filled with the fullness of God, leads us to this place of standing firm, praying always and living boldly. My prayer today is that we will grab hold of the purpose of our position and the importance of our mission so that we can live in full obedience, full victory and the fullness of joy.

Ephesians 6 is where we find Paul’s teaching about “the armor of God”. The few verses that precede the details about the armor are often lumped in with the rest, but I believe that those verses are given to us as a preparation for the tools that we have been given by God. Tools taken without understanding of their purpose can often become useless in our hands. Today we have tried to focus on the purpose of the armor so that we will be prepared to walk in its fullness. Our key points are: God is building strength in you; you will wrestle and victory is in the midst of standing. I pray that each of us will take courage in God’s promises, embrace God’s preparation and stay focused on God’s purpose. He will finish everything He has started and He will fulfill everything that He has promised.