Welcome back everyone to your 24/7, weeklong, online church service. It is true, everyone is welcome in this place. I trust that everyone enjoyed the holidays. It is always fun and enjoyable to fellowship with family and friends, isn’t it? We have survived another year of life. All the trials, tribulations, and yes, the blessings of God have brought us to a new year. 2012 Is now upon us.
A new year with new promises. The Spirit of Wisdom Ministries is glad to be a part of your life as we move forward in 2012. You know, the start of a new year is a time of new beginnings, isn’t it? New Years Resolutions abound. By the way, how many of them have you broken so far? Our prayer for you is that all positive spiritual resolutions you have made will come to pass. Let’s make this a time to become closer to God and his son, Jesus.
As I’ve told you before, I always told my children, the closer you are to God, the better your life will be. The farther away from God, the worse off your life will be. Let’s go for the better life. Does that sound good to you? The Spirit of Wisdom Ministries is also looking forward to this New Year. Our desire in 2012 is to give forth God’s Word to you in truth and by the Spirit of God. This ministry is rededicating ourselves to sharing the revealed truth of the Word that God shares with us for you.
Our New Years pledge to you will cover the following: Please listen to me carefully, church. No preacher of the Gospel knows everything there is to know about God. Our pledge is to only preach from the Bible. Anything the Spirit of God reveals to us through the scriptures, we will share with you. Any part of the Bible we do not yet understand, we will not preach to you.
God has made it clear to me what our mission as an online church is. We are to preach salvation and healing, both physical and mental. We will also be teaching about deliverance from evil spirits. Also, this year we will be teaching and preaching on and about the Holy Spirit. We have not touched that subject much in the last two years, but this year we are ready to preach on this very important subject. Let me say this, although we have not preached specifically on the Holy Spirit, we have always depended on the Holy Spirit for comfort, guidance and revelation.
One other very important thing for this New Year: Church, I am asking you very seriously – please pray for all prayer requests that are now posted and all future requests. Let it be known your online church is a praying church. These people are trusting us to lift them up to God for physical and mental healings, and for financial and personal needs. Join with us as we pray daily for all prayer requests. We are expecting great results from our prayers. Yes, it is still true, God does hear and answers our prayers.
There is one other request for 2012. We need to hear from you. Please leave a comment after reading or listening to the messages we put forth. Not every week, just when a message blesses you or you disagree with something we have taught or preached. This is not just for us. Other church members need to hear your testimonies or questions. Let’s encourage each other by two-way participation. We want to hear from you.
Well, I believe we have covered quite a bit of church business here, don’t you? I want to start this New Year by touching on the subject of salvation. God in his infinite goodness saw that man needed a way to be set free from the bondages of sin. God loves us, ladies and gentlemen. He desires that we be reconciled to himself. He wants us to be his children and not just his creation. This is illustrated beautifully in John 3:1-3. Jesus in this scripture explains what being born again really means and why it is so important. Let’s read John 3:1-3 together.
“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”You know, Nicodemus sort of expressed what people of today think. They have heard of Jesus, but who is he really? Just a good man, or really the Son of God? Jesus decided to just lay it all out for Nicodemus and for us all. Once Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be born again, a question was asked. Let’s continue with John 3:4-5. Consider carefully this question and the answer. It is life changing.
“Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”So what did Jesus mean born of water and of the Spirit? He is talking about your natural birth when you were born as a baby and also about a spiritual birth. Water? Natural birth. Of the Spirit? Spiritual birth, which is brought about by God alone. Just for the record, when Jesus speaks of water here, he is not speaking of water baptism as is sometimes taught. But, isn’t that a natural and normal question Nicodemus asked? This information is just for us folks. The reason many people make fun of the term born again, is that they have no idea what the Word of God says about the subject. Jesus goes on with the explanation in John 3:6-7.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I have said unto thee, ye must be born again.”What great scriptures we have just examined. We will continue with Part Two of this message next week. Stay with me, friends. There are some very exciting things ahead for us all in the year 2012.
God Bless You,
Bro. Bob
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