The Spirit Experiment – Acts Chapter 5.

Use the hymn, “Search Me O God’ by James E. Orr as a meditation for this week’s experiments.

1. Search me, O God, and know my heart today,
   Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray;
   See if there be some wicked way in me;
   Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.
2. I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
   Fulfill Thy word and make me pure within;
   Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;
   Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.
3. Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;
   Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine;
   Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
   I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.
4. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee;
   Send a revival, start the work in me;
   Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;
   For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead.

(Public Domain)

• Why do you do what you do? Make a list of all the things you do for God. Prayerfully analyze your motives for each one. Any selfishness there? Confess it. Maybe give that thing up.
• Wear a rubber band around your wrist for a day. Give yourself a flick every time you are tempted to lie. Ouch!
• Get together with a friend this week and talk about how you can encourage each other to live out of pure motives. Give each other permission to ask the tough questions and expect honest answers.

 

 

 

Who Are You Aggravating?

It wasn’t long before the brand-new Church began aggravating people.  It so happened that it was the same bunch that had gotten riled up about Jesus. Now they arrest Peter and John and begin to harass them. They don’t really have a case – they just know that their own personal power is being threatened and they have got to do something.

We took a look at  Acts 4 at the Bridge this past Sunday Morning. This is what we came up with…

1. What you can expect from a Loving God…

He will save, give us words to speak, find ways for His message to spread, provide power to heal, give us the ability to be bold in the face of persecution, Resurrection, the power to do His will, knowledge and insight into His Word, companionship, discernment. He will shake things up, help us to love our enemies, perform signs and wonders, and provide a way out.

2. What you can expect from an evil world…

Persecution, judgment, suppression, oppression, ridicule, mockery, interruption, insistence on the status quo, the preservation of secular power at all costs, rejection, death, slander, vice, false prophets. The evil world will ignore us; try to steal our faith; and question truth in a closed-minded fashion;

3. Our Response as the People of a Loving God living in an evil world.

We are to rejoice, keep our eyes on the Goal, pray, fast, read Scripture, love our enemies, and live lives of praise. We need to be grounded in Christ, bold in the Spirit, and full of wisdom and knowledge.

OK so try some of these Experiments…

1. Make a list of the things you can expect from an evil world (2 above). For the next week, keep track of your experience of each of these. Ask yourself, “Is this response because of something I deserve (is this because I have just been a jerk?), or is it simply persecution against me because I am doing God’s will?
2. If persecution is not a part of your life, identify someone close to you who is all about preserving their own power or authority. Get close to them and let God guide you in speaking to them about His claim to authority in their lives. Then brace yourself……
3. Spend at least 30 minutes this week browsing the internet sites of Christian organizations dedicated to helping the persecuted church worldwide.

http://www.opendoorsusa.org/

http://www.persecution.org/

http://www.persecution.com/

4. Rewrite the believer’s prayer in Acts 4:24-30 to fit your circumstances. Get together with a group of friends (one person and you is a group…) and pray this prayer. Watch for your world to be rocked.

The Spirit Experiment, Week 3

The Spirit Experiment, Week 3

Remember birthdays when you were a kid? You couldn’t wait to try out that new toy you were given. You ran and jumped around impatiently as Mom or Dad assembled it, read the safety instructions, and installed the batteries. And then …….. FINALLY you got to play with it.

So, have you tried out your Spiritual Gifts, yet? That’s why God gave them to you, you know: to use them to bless the church and your world. If you have taken a Spiritual Gifts assessment, you should have some kind of idea where your gift mix lies. Experimenting is one way of narrowing down what gifts you have, and of developing the gifts that God has given you.

This week, our Spirit Experiments are all about the Manifestation gifts. Remember, the Utterance Gifts, SAY something, the Power Gifts DO something and the Revelation Gifts (wait for it…) REVEAL something.

Prophecy: Spend this week praying specifically about your church. Keep a journal and write down what you believe God is telling you. Is He pleased or displeased? What pleases Him and what displeases Him about your church? Afterwards, schedule to meet with your pastor and talk to him/her about your experience.

Speaking in Tongues/Interpretation of tongues: Visit with someone on your campus or in your community from a foreign culture that does not have mastery of the English language. You could also spend time with someone who has a communication handicap like being blind or deaf. Spend time finding out about their life, their world, their family, their culture, their challenges and joys.  People with the gift of tongues are able to overcome communication barriers in a supernatural way.

Faith: Identify one challenge in your community that is holding people/families back from living in the peace and joy that God intended to them. Pray about doing something about this need. Share this with your pastor, tell her/him about what God is telling you and seek their advice and help.

Healing: Start a special section in your prayer journal and call it ‘Healing’. Pray daily for people you know are sick. Where possible, pray with them personally, on the phone, or through facebook/email. Keep follow-up information in you journal. Remember that God can heal emotions, relationships, memories, and minds as well as bodies.

Word of Wisdom: Think about your circle of friends. Identify two (or more) who are in conflict with each other. Pray for each one by name, and pray for the situation. Write them a note telling them what you believe to be God’s perspective on their conflict and suggesting a Biblical path back to reconciliation.

Word of Knowledge: As you pray for people and situations, keep a journal listing impressions you believe God is giving you. Do not share these with anyone. What Biblical principles apply to where these people are right now? As time goes by, check the reliability of these impressions – were they on track or way off the truth? This is a gift that takes careful cultivation over a long period of time.

Discerning of Spirits: Spend a week specifically being on the lookout for indications of great good or great evil. Keep notes in your journal about your experiences and impressions. Look for patterns that indicate accuracy about your ability to gauge spiritual motivations behind events, actions and decisions involving individuals, corporations, and governing powers.

In Conclusion:

Remember, God gives Spiritual Gifts to believers so that they can be a blessing to the Church and the world. As you work to narrow down and develop your gift set, make yourself available to God through His Church to be used for the benefit of His Kingdom.

Let us know how it works out,

Ken

The ‘Spirit’ Experiment – Part 2

The ‘Spirit Experiment’

Week 2

You don’t have to read very far into the Book of Acts to find out that this is a story about a normal bunch of people who were energized by a supernatural power. People are speaking in languages they have not learned, Peter and John are telling crippled people to get up and walk, and we haven’t even got past chapter three. What’s going on here? And how does this apply to me?

The truth is that we at The Bridge, are a bunch of pretty normal people ….. that God wants to be energized by the supernatural power of His Holy Spirit. So, instead of achieving ‘normal’ results through natural means, God offers us the opportunity and the ability to make His Kingdom real to our world through the power of His Spirit.

So how does it work? Well first you need to be born again. When we choose to leave our old life behind, and trust Christ alone to save us, God plants His Holy Spirit into our lives and makes us into new beings. Now we have the choice to live our lives continually surrendering our will to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to control our motives.

The more control the Spirit has in our lives, the more we will be able to recognize and exercise spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us to benefit our world.

Finding Your Spiritual Gifts

1. Pray – Sincerely ask God to guide you and show you what gifts He has chosen to give you. Remember that spiritual gifts may or may not match your natural gift set and talents.
2. Listen to Christian leaders you respect – If your pastor falls off the chair in hysterical uncontrollable laughter when you tell him/her that you think you have the spiritual gift of wisdom….. then maybe you don’t..
3. Do a Spiritual Gifts Survey – These surveys range from helpful to downright cheesy. Here are a couple of free  online ones you can try:

http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.1355371/k.9501/Spiritual_Gifts.htm

http://www.churchgrowth.org/cgi-cg/gifts.cgi?intro=1 (This one will ask you for your e-mail address so they can send you stuff. You can unregister later you have taken the test.

1. Experiment – This is a little like shopping for shoes. You try on ten pairs of shoes that pinch your toes and squish your feet, but then you finally put your feet into the pair that make your feet feel like they are at a continual spa – you wear them home with your old shoes in the box.

So why not prayerfully, and in the context of your fellow believers, ‘try on’

some of the gifts that came up in your survey. Here are some ideas…

• Prophecy: Choose one person to pray for intensely and continually this week. As you pray, keep a journal of the thoughts and impressions that repeatedly come to you through the process.
• Ministering/Serving/Helps: Try to figure out how you could serve your neighbor this week, and then just do it.
• Teaching: Read up on a subject that interests you. Look for an opportunity to talk about what you have read with a group of your friends (over a meal, while driving in the car etc.) How do they react to you?
• Giving: Set aside an amount of money that would ‘hurt’ you to give this week. Put it in the offering, or look for a needy family that would benefit from your giving. Did the process make you wish you could do it again?
• Exhortation/Encouragement: Write a note to someone who seems ‘down’ this week. How did they react?
• Administration/Leadership: Look for an area at your school, office, or church that needs tidying up (storeroom, stationary shelves, break room, kitchen cupboards). Ask permission to tidy and organize that area. Make sure you communicate with the person who is responsible for the area to make your that your plan actually will help them.
• Mercy:  Go somewhere where people in need are gathered (ER in a hospital, unemployment line, lobby of a courthouse) and sit for an hour. Make notes on what impression and emotions you are experiencing. If you see a need, fill it.
• Apostle: Do a quick survey of the ministries in your church, on your campus or in your town. Look at that list. Do you see anything missing? Make a list of the possibilities and opportunities that you see. Are there any things on the list you would like to initiate?
• Evangelist: Present the Gospel to a complete stranger this week. How did they react? Did you present the Gospel to more than one person?
• Pastor: Pray for someone who you know is struggling with their faith this week. Visit with them if you wish, and listen to them tell of their struggles. Pray with them before you leave.
• Teacher: Read through the Articles of the faith (see link below) Is there a particular issue about which that you believe that people are lacking in knowledge and experience. Choose one of the articles and ask your pastor if you can have an opportunity to teach on that subject  under their guidance. How did that work out for you?

http://www.nazarene.org/ministries/administration/visitorcenter/articles/display.aspx

More experiments to follow next week…..

Be Blessed

Ken

A Guide to Spiritual Gifts

A Guide to Spiritual Gifts

The Bridge at Clemson Church of the Nazarene

Apart from the many places in Acts where the Spiritual Gifts are shown in action, the New Testament teaches specifically about Spiritual Gifts in the following passages: I Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:7-13; Romans 12:6-8; I Peter 4:10. The Bible teaches that when God fills the Christian with the Holy Spirit, He gives the believer supernatural abilities that s/he did not have before. These abilities are given for the benefit of the church and need to be identified, and nurtured. They may or may not be related to natural skills. Every Christian has at least one of these gifts. There are three main categories of gifts: Motivational gifts. Ministry gifts, and Manifestation gifts

Motivational gifts: The motivational gifts serve to reveal the personality of God. These gifts are practical in nature. They describe the inner motivations of the Christian servant.

Prophecy – Those with the motivational gift of prophecy are the “seers” or “eyes” of the body. They have insight, foresight, and act like watch dogs in the church. They warn of sin or reveal sin. They are usually very verbal and may come across as judgmental and impersonal; they are loyal to truth over friendship, serious, dedicated.

Ministering/Serving/Helps – Those with the motivational gift of serving are the “hands” of the body. They are concerned with meeting needs; they are highly motivated, doers. They may tend to over commit, but find joy in serving and meeting short-term goals. Teaching – Those with the motivational gift of teaching are the “mind” of the body. They realize their gift is foundational; they emphasize accuracy of words and love to study; they delight in research to validate truth. Giving – Those with the motivational gift of giving are the “arms” of the body. They truly enjoy reaching out in giving. They are excited by the prospect of blessing others; they desire to give quietly, in secret, but will also motivate others to give. They are alert to people’s needs; they give cheerfully and always give the best that they can.

Exhortation/Encouragement – Those with the motivational gift of encouragement are the “mouth” of the body. Like cheerleaders, they encourage other believers and are motivated by a desire to see people grow and mature in the Lord. They are practical and positive and they seek positive responses.

Administration/Leadership – Those with the motivational gift of leadership are the “head” of the body. They have the ability to see the overall picture and set long-term goals; they are good organizers and find efficient ways of getting work done. Although they may not seek leadership, they will assume it when no leader is available. They receive fulfillment when others come together to complete a task. Mercy – Those with the motivational gift of mercy are the “heart” of the body. They easily sense the joy or distress in other people and are sensitive to feelings and needs. They are attracted to and patient with people in need, motivated by a desire to see people healed of hurts. They are truly meek in nature and avoid firmness.

Ministry gifts: The ministry gifts serve to reveal the plan of God. They are characteristic of a full-time office or calling, rather than a gift that can function in and through any believer.

Apostle – An apostle establishes and builds churches; s/he’s a church planter. An apostle may function in many or all of the ministry gifts.

Prophet – Prophet in the Greek means to “forth tell” in the sense of speaking for another. A prophet functions as God’s mouth piece, speaking forth God’s Word. The Prophet points to the future and points out sin.

Evangelist – An evangelist is called to be a witness for Jesus Christ He/She works to bring people into the body of Christ where they can be discipled. He/She may evangelize through music, drama, preaching, and other creative ways. Evangelists usually draw a lot of attention, but they are called to serve the local body.

Pastor – The pastor is the shepherd of the people. A true shepherd lays down their life for the sheep. He/She is married to the church; called to stay, oversee, nurture and guide.

Teacher – The teacher and the pastor are often a shared office, but not always. The teacher lays the foundation and is concerned with detail and accuracy. He/She delights in research to validate truth. Though seemingly small and insignificant, this gift is designed specifically for digging into tight, dark places, shining light and picking apart the Word of truth.

Manifestation gifts: The manifestation gifts serve to reveal the power of God. These gifts are supernatural or spiritual in nature. They can be further subdivided into three groups: utterance, power, and revelation.

Utterance – These gifts say something:

• Prophecy – This is the “forth telling” of the inspired Word of God primarily to the church, for the purpose of confirming the written Word and building up the entire body. The message is usually one of edification, exhortation or consolation, although it can declare God’s will in a particular circumstance, and in rare cases, predict future events.
• Speaking in Tongues – This is a supernatural ability to communicate in an unlearned human language and to convey concepts across cultural, language, age or gender barriers.
• Interpretation of Tongues – This is a supernatural ability to interpret a message an unknown human language, translated into the known language so that the hearers (the entire body) will be edified.

Power – These gifts do something:

• Faith – This is not the faith that is measured to every believer, nor is it “saving faith.” This is special, supernatural faith given by the Spirit to receive miracles or to believe God for miracles.
• Healing – This is supernatural healing, beyond natural means, given by the Spirit.
• Miracles – This is the supernatural suspension of the natural laws, or an intervention by the Holy Spirit into the laws of nature.

Revelation – These gifts reveal something:

• Word of Wisdom – This is supernatural knowledge applied in a godly or correct way.
• Word of Knowledge – This is supernatural knowledge of facts and information that can only be revealed by God for the purpose of applying doctrinal truth.
• Discerning of Spirits – This is the supernatural ability to distinguish between spirits such as good and evil, truthful or deceiving, prophetic versus satanic.

What is your Spiritual Gift?

Finding your Spiritual Gift is a process that involves prayer, counsel, experiment, and experience. Taking a Spiritual Gift inventory can be useful in helping you to identify your Spiritual Gift mix.

Spiritual Gifts can be grown and developed over time with training and experience. Most of all, God wants you to be a gift to the world and His church through your obedience and surrender to His will.

Sources:

www.about.com

www.umc.org

The ‘Spirit’ Experiment

Two things came together: The success of the ‘Kingdom Experiment’ we did last semester, and the idea of taking our Sunday Morning study of Acts to the next level during the week. So, they came together in “The Spirit Experiment” (apologies to NPH!). Based on the same format of the Kingdom Experiment  each week’s study will include ideas for putting the passage into practice and then reflecting on the experience as a community. So, here’s this week’s experiment. Choose one (or two) of the following ideas and keep a record (blog, journal, etc) on how it worked out for you. Then, either comment on this blog site, or talk about it when we get together on Thursdays at 7 PM.

Acts 2:42-47

1. Transformers come to Lunch (…or breakfast or dinner)

Pick a meal that you will be sharing with others this week, and transform it into a ‘breaking of bread’. Use some bread (could be the bun of your burger) and whatever you are drinking as symbols of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. Pray and encourage those around the table to give thanks with you.

2. Awe-some Actions

Sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of the things that God has done in your life that have evoked a sense of ‘Awe’.

3. Coffee-Confession Session

Make a coffee date with someone who you could not describe as being ‘united’ with, and try to get to know them better. Perhaps there is something you need to confess that may have led to the lack of unity between you.

4. Craig’s List, meet Frank (or whatever your friend’s name is.)

Sell something you do not need and give the money to a friend who needs it.

5. Glad Visit

Buy takeouts or ice cream and show up at a friend’s dorm-room or home and pay them a surprise ‘glad visit’. Maybe take some other friends with you. Feel free to dress up, or bring party balloons, streamers etc.

George Mueller and Knowing God’s Will

George Mueller was a pastor in England during the 1900′s. By the end of his life had built four orphanages that housed 2000 children at a time. Throughout his ministry he has distributed over $8,000,000 that had been given to him as a result of prayer. He covenanted never to tell any person about the needs of his ministry – only to tell God. Henry Blackaby uses Mueller as an example of how to get into a ‘heart’ relationship with God and how to recognize His voice when He speaks. Here’s how George Mueller went about finding God’s will.

• I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are over come when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
• Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
• I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
• Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
• I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.
• Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

Way-Points to Experiencing God

“We often act as though God tells us what He wants us to do and then sends us off all by ourselves to try to do it. Then, anytime we need Him, we call on Him; and He will help us. That is never the biblical picture. When God is about to do something, He reveals to His people what He is about to do. He wants to do His work through His people. … When God is about to do something through you, He has to get you from where you are to where He is” (Henry Blackaby)

The journey into experiencing God takes us through seven distinct way-points. Just like way-points on a map confirm that we are on the right track and give us direction for the next phase of the journey, these seven realities help us stay on track to becoming people who experience God as part of our lifestyle.

The Seven Way-Points are:

1. God is always at work around you.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. You must make adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you.

The Seven Way-Points in Action – Moses

Read Exodus chapters 2-4 and try to identify each of the seven way-points in the way God dealt with Moses and how Moses experienced and responded to God.



There are no wrong questions. Really???

It sounds nice to say that there are no wrong questions. However if we are seeking a particular piece of information, it would be best to ask the question that would end up getting us the answer we are looking for. For example, the question “Where did you buy that attractive floral print mu-mu?” would not help you if you wanted to find out where to catch the Number Ten bus. We do that with God. We are always asking “What is Your will for my life?” It’s not that our motive for asking is wrong, it’s just that the emphasis is in the wrong place: “me and my life “. Get over it – it’s not about you and your life – it’s about God and what He is doing.

Jesus says in John 5:17 “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” The important thing is to find out what God is doing, in my neighborhood, my school, my church, my community. The question should be “What is God’s will?” – And boy, is the Bible full of that or what.

Take Abram. God shows up and says “Leave your country, your people and your Father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)  You can’t get a vaguer itinerary than that. You see, I want God’s will to be like Garmin: I type in the destination and then just blindly follow the ‘turn-by-turn’ directions. I don’t care about having a relationship with the GPS device; I just want to get there. For God, the big deal isn’t the destination, but the fun we have on the road trip while we’re getting there. It’s God getting into the car and saying ‘Drive’. ‘Where to?’ we ask, and He just says ‘I’ll show you’.

So what is God doing in your school, your workplace, your neighborhood?

Welcome to ‘Crossing the Bridge’ – our small group blogsite.

Experiencing God^*

We are a nation of spectators. Its bowl season, so we get comfortable on the sofa with our popcorn and beer to cheer on (or boo) our team to victory (or defeat). We live our lives through the participants of reality TV shows, and (c’mon admit it) the soaps.

Get out there and experience life for yourself! Get dirty, take the risk, set yourself up to win (or lose). Funny how the universal symbol of sport screams at us to ‘just do it’, yet our response is to just settle our butts deeper into the sofa and wait for the next play.

Life with God was never meant to be a spectator sport. We can never let our pastor, spouse, brother, friend, parent, child nor anyone else live out our life with God for us. We have to get up off the sofa, and run onto the field of play. Sure, we may get sacked, we may miss the catch and make utter fools of ourselves. But nothing comes close to the thrill of experiencing God at work in our lives.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)

As you follow Jesus one day at a time, He will keep you right in the center of God’s will.

This is not a program,

not a method,

but a love relationship with God.

Experiencing God is being able to ….

• Recognize God’s voice when He speaks
• Know when God is doing something in your life
• Believe that God is who He says he is and can do what He says He can do.
• Adjust your beliefs, character, and behavior to align yourself with God and His ways.
• See what God wants to do in and through your life
• Know how to respond to God’s activity in your life.
• Experience God doing through you what only God can do!

Being able to do all this is impossible – only God can help you do it. However, as we take this journey together, God can help you deepen your experience of  Himself and these things can become a reality in your life. (John 14:26)

Following God One Day at a Time

Most of the time, God does not tell us the whole plan all at once. Rather, He gives us enough information for us to take the next step of obedience. Then, when we have taken that, He shows us the next step. Read about how God led Abram (God later changed his name to Abraham) in Genesis 12:1-9. Notice the level of detail (or lack thereof) God went into with the instructions. Abraham is known as someone who ‘walked by faith’ (Hebrews 11). Are you ready for follow God without knowing all the details, but taking each step of obedience as He reveals it?

Feel free to take part in the discussion by adding your comments, questions and insights to the blog.

Read Matthew 6:33-34 and Philippians 2:13.

Think about what you have read and confess your level of readiness to God (be honest now). Ask Him for help to walk by faith.

^*The material for this study is based on Henry Blackaby’s Study on Experiencing God, published by Lifeway Press in Nashville, TN in 1994.