Wednesday 14 th September 2016 CHRISTIAN HOPE Continued. Last week before the sermon we were led into a time of prayer and praise and worship. Many people gave me the feedback that they were really invigorated by those moments and I would like to share a testimony of something that happened because of that. After the meeting I was praying over people and a gentleman who lives in California was here. I know him because he comes for the meetings in the US. He had brought along a friend and he introduced him. Last week there was a word of knowledge for a gall bladder sickness being healed and that was during the time of prayer that we had. This friend had come here for the first time. He lives in France and had come from Lourdes with a big issue in the gall bladder. This friend had brought him here to pray for his problem and the Lord spoke to his issue directly. You can see the revelation of God at that time truly broke through this person's needs. In the same way it must be breaking through so many people's needs, so please come and testify. Last week the testimonies went on for 15 20 minutes, but unfortunately, only the chairs heard. Try and allow the environment to minister to you because faith grows on faith but the opposite is also true unbelief grows on unbelief. If you normally live in an unbelieving environment, unbelief rubs on you and you generally possess what you believe. So not to believe is actually to believe in unbelief. When you do that, you get the result of that in your life. The theme we are reflecting on is hope. Many people are giving me feedback that this hope is opening their eyes. This is not just regular hope, but Christian Hope. Christian hope can be different from all other hope. The foundation of Christian hope is trust and faith in the goodness of God. Generally for trust and faith we need understanding. "I am going to take a loan of a million rupees." How? "I have my provident fund, I'm going to ask so and so and I'm going to take this loan. I hope I get it." That hope is based on understanding. When most people say hope they have to have a string of understanding. The problem comes when you don't have understanding. That means you don't know how it is going to happen and it looks as if there is no way. That's when people lose hope. Christian hope is different. It has got two legs of its own: A divine experience This divine experience or encounter must begin somewhere. For many of us it has taken place. One day we suddenly received what we call a touch of God. We were loved, we were touched and we experienced His living presence. Once you have a touch of God and an experience of God, nobody can convince you that God doesn't exist because you have experienced Him.
First of all, a lot of us experience God through events like some sort of breakthrough. "I didn't have an answer and God opened a way to receive an answer." That's an experience of God. But, if you only know God through events, when you don't have any good events happening to you you will also lose your hope. That s why experiencing God through events is valuable and beautiful, but it also must become an internal experience and an inner revelation. One day and some day it must happen to you. For many people it happens in the four step retreat. That's why the four step retreat is such a gift. I'm inviting you to pray because next year we are having this breakthrough in a diocese in Australia where the priests are going to do a four step retreat. That is a major breakthrough. Half of it will be done by the Archbishop who is linked with us in Australia. God is opening these doors because at the end of the four step retreat, people receive what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The touch of God that was an experience, an event becomes something more it becomes an internal reality and revelation. Once you have that, it's not good enough. You must grow in the divine encounter. This is the key to the powerful, victorious inner journey. I remember I was baptized in the Holy Spirit but I was a very raw person. I had lived in the world and in fact, I didn't know what a spiritual life was. I thought something was wrong with spiritual people. If somebody didn't smoke, drink or party I thought they were abnormal. I thought normalcy was to smoke, drink, and party and do the things we normally do. I used to pity them and think, "How sad! What kind of a life they are having." So I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and touched by the love of God. But from time to time, it swung the other way and internally I got into serious doubts. There was nobody to ask no spiritual guidance, no counsellors. One night I remember, I went to sleep with this big question in my heart: Is this experience actually true or am I on an emotional trip? A lot of people who are outside see the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an emotional high because that's how it is manifested. So in the initial stages I myself questioned this and wondered if this was why I was swaying into doubt and fear. Then I woke up at around 2am with a clear thought in my mind: "Read Isaiah 41." I didn't know what Isaiah 41 held because as I explained to you earlier, I didn't even know where Isaiah was! So I took the bible and opened it to Isaiah 41. It said, "Jacob, you worm. Do not be afraid, I have not abandoned you, but I have saved you." When I read this, it was as if God was speaking directly to me. He woke me up and spoke to my heart. Then the prophesy goes on, "You think you are weak and helpless and powerless but I will use you like a thresher and I will use you to thresh mountains and bring them down." I began to realize that even a dream that I never had, God had for me. Only then did I realize that He was ministering to me directly from the scriptures. Later I realized in Ephesians 6:17 it says, "The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." I never knew any of this but I was woken and God spoke to me and the divine encounter was fostered!
If you don't have a divine encounter, ask the Lord for it, fight for it and do not rest. The longing will bring it to you. It is amazing how He will find a way to visit you. Esther Gulshan, who was a Muslim, because she was crippled on one side, for two years she prayed through the Quran to Jesus because Jesus and the Blessed Mother are mentioned in the Quran. Her desperation made her pray to Jesus. It was not just one day or two days, but it took two years for the Lord to manifest for her. If nobody has a hunger, you will never be fed by God. The hunger is, "I want a divine encounter." Those who have had a divine encounter, increase your hunger! "I want more." People increase their hunger for money. People who are rich become ruthless, because their hunger and appetite for money has increased. People increase their hunger for lust. Do you think a person who has been unfaithful once will never be unfaithful again? Their unfaithfulness becomes like a cancer inside, eating them and driving them to become someone else. That hunger is given by God not for unfaithfulness or money, but for the divine experience. Therefore, hold the divine experience and ask for it. I'm asking the Lord continuously these days, "Take me to a deeper place, give me an insight so that I may journey deeper into your heart." For many years, when I dream and I get up in the morning, I can never remember what I dream most of the time they are not holy dreams but normal dreams of ordinary people. But in these days I'm having dreams, where God is quietly giving direction and revelation. I'm thinking that it is the hunger. Keep asking the Lord, "Lord, reveal your presence to me." One dream I received three days ago I received it on two nights and that's how I remember it so clearly. I was in a room trying to clean it up and it was messy and stinking. I'm repulsed by the messiness in the room and I'm trying to clean it up and there's no way. Then someone tells me, "Why are you trying to clean up this place and live here when there is this river outside which is so pure and clean you can bathe in it and everything will be changed!" Suddenly the interpretation dropped in. The unclean, dirty room is the limited understanding of my mind. I'm trying to find answers in my own mind and my sub conscience and trying to work things out; when the promises of God and the Holy Spirit are the river that is flowing. All I need to do is to stop trying to find answers inside and bathe in the promises of God. As you hunger and thirst, He will reveal a divine encounter. If you receive it, it will not only be for you but God will make you a blessing for others. Dwelling on the promises of God Don t think you're smart enough to work things out by yourself. You have to be really smart to realize you're actually dumb. It is only when you're really smart that you realize what you know is so limited. You begin to realize, "I'll never work it out. I'm human, I'm limited, I'm a broken person. I better start trusting in the promises of God."
Hope is reliance on the goodness of God. You rely on the goodness of God through the divine encounter that you keep renewing every day from morning to morning and dwelling, bathing and swimming in the promises of God. The last thing I want to say before I go to the main topic is: The good that God wants to do depends not on Him, but on you. God has a good plan for your life, but whether it will materialize or not does not depend on God but on you, because God has given us something called a free will. I will give you a few examples: Look at Jesus. God worked out a good plan for Jesus. He said, "You be born to the Virgin Mary, become the son of a carpenter and walk in Galilee. Then you'll be persecuted, attacked, you will suffer, then you will go to the cross, you'll be nailed and put to shame." It doesn't look too good but God had a good plan, because into that plan is included Jesus' rising from the dead, being glorified, sitting at the right hand of the Father and then sending the Holy Spirit, empowering the weak disciples and sending them to the ends of the earth to change the world. So God's plan was pretty good but it didn't depend on God it depended on Jesus. Jesus had to choose especially at Gethsemane whether He would trust the goodness of the Father and say yes to this plan; or trust his instincts and escape. If He was looking for understanding, He would have failed the exam. He could have said, "I can do much better things if I live another 20 years. I can heal people and do so many other things." He could have given a thousand reasons. When we want to do something we can always have pretty good reasons. We can explain ten reasons why we should have lived up to fifty. But, Jesus had these two experiences the divine encounter and the promises of God. He knew the goodness of the Father and He also knew the promises of God. Therefore He trusted the plan. He said, "I can't understand but you are my Father and you are good. If you say I go, then I go." Thank God he went. St. Paul explains in Philippians 2 how Jesus had he position next to God but he didn't want to hold on to it. He became a man, a servant, a slave and then he even was obedient unto death death on a cross. When he did that, God raised him from the dead. This requires cooperation. God has a perfect plan and Jesus just has to say yes. So God has a perfect plan for all of our lives. It is a good plan not only for you but for other people as well. But we also have to say yes to His plan. Say you don't say yes what will happen? I do a devil dance, I dash coconuts on the floor in anger, I throw a tantrum, I fight, scold, react, get caught up and then say, "God, please help me." How can God help you when you have taken charge?
God can turn everything to good, but He needs your permission. Until you give Him your permission, God is waiting with a good plan but you're messing up the whole thing. Some people live and die with a messed up life because they didn't stop one day and surrender to the beautiful plan of God. They didn't surrender but they prayed until the cows came home, "God, help me!" God in turn says, "How can I help you? You're taking charge of the show, you're running with your fears, you're doing what you like, you're solving problems the way you like, you're hitting people on the head, you're reacting." Then you say, "God, help me!" It won't work! Here is the key: The Father's plan is good but you have to cooperate. That's why the greatest prayer is the prayer of surrender. Look at the Blessed Mother. People have a devotion to the Blessed Mother and much devotion is very popular on the surface. "I love the Mother!" Why? "She reminds me of my mother." There is no depth. But look at the Blessed Mother. It is only Jesus and the Blessed Mother who reveals this beautiful truth: The Angel Gabriel brings the plan of the Father to the Blessed Mother and says, "The Father has a plan of sending His son into your womb. But your husband to be doesn't know and people don't know so you're going to have a bit of a problem. But, are you ready?" If she said, "I can't," God has to wait another 2000 years for another Blessed Virgin Mary. The beauty of this is that she said yes to the plan. We say, "Mary, conceived without original sin," because a person who is born in sin can't say yes to God. All of us who are born in sin can't say yes to God because our sinfulness, fears, blindness, the darkness of sin will prevent us from saying yes to God. That's why the church reflected much and said, "Mary conceived without original sin." We need to understand the meanings of these truths. When she said yes, the beautiful plan of the Father for her carrying God in her womb, bringing Jesus into the world and changing the world happened through her because she also had hope. She knew and trusted in the Lord. "Hail, Mary," in today's terms is hello. "Full of grace." She is full of the divine experience and the promises of God. That's why she quoted the psalms and said, "The Lord lifts the lowly and pushes away the proud." Why do the proud get pushed away? Because they're running their own life and controlling the outcome. In the end, the outcome is not blessed by God. Because I am powerless I depend on the power of God and the perfect plan works in my life. This needs to be understood. The outcome of Christian hope, which is goodness, depends on us as much as it depends on God. That's why we need a prayer life, a familiarity with the scriptures and the ability to walk deeply with the Lord. Look at St. Patrick of Ireland. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was coming from a noble family in England and Irish raiders raided the mainland and came into their village and abducted Patrick. Patrick was a good Christian. At that time, he would have asked a couple of questions: "Why me, Lord? When there are a thousand other people, why should you allow them to abduct me? You don't love me." Isn't that the conclusion we normally come to? But when Patrick went to Ireland, he was a slave because he was abducted. He was looking after animals in the winter outside and he built an inner spiritual journey with God. He had the divine encounter. Then
he opened himself to the word and he started receiving revelation from God and God spoke to him and said, "On the other side of the island is a boat. Go and I will take you to England." He walked in the night and he went to the boat and was taken on and he went to England. But in England he couldn't wait. His heart was disturbed like Joseph Vaz's heart was disturbed for Sri Lanka. When he told the Bishop there, "I want to become a missionary to Ireland," he was told that every missionary who went to Ireland paid for it with their life because they never accepted the gospel and they killed the missionaries. But his burden was so great that he became a priest and went to Ireland. The advantage he had was, by then he knew the language, the culture, the religion because he was a slave for so many years. He was able to present Christianity in a way no missionary could present before. Today, over 90% of Ireland is completely Catholic. In the middle centuries, when there was trouble in Europe, the Catholic intellectual tradition was protected in the monasteries of Ireland. God had a great plan in the enslavement of Patrick. But if anyone had tried to explain it to Patrick they would have failed. So God said, "Trust me, I am good for you and for others." We need to grow into that trust. You can't grow into it by intellectual understanding you grow into it by a divine encounter and becoming immersed in the word of God. If you have a divine encounter and you're living in the word of God if you want to be strengthened He will strengthen you, when you want to be led, He will lead you, when you want a breakthrough He will give us a breakthrough and we will be led beautifully through life. So let's move to Christian hope with our life. I want to give you an example of hope. It is from Acts 16. It is about the power of hope. This is written in the first person account because Luke is the author of the Acts of the Apostles. At this particular part, Luke was also there. Acts 16:16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. I want to point out two things: 1. Fortune telling and predicting the future is done with the aid of unclean and evil spirits. So don't dabble in them because it will get to you. They can tell about the future and they can tell about your past. A lot of people go running for that need. With experience I have found out that they say 85% of the truth and 15% lies. They don't tell many lies but they tell crucial ones. For e.g.: They will blame someone for your problem and without a shred of evidence, we start fighting those people. Families are torn apart, marriages are shattered because they listened to an evil spirit. You must remember that the devil is a spiritual being, not a mutt. The devil is a spiritual being and the bible says he was leading the choir in heaven. So we are no match for spiritual beings. This devil in question was a profitable devil because this devil was giving these owners a lot of money by fortune telling.
Acts 16:17 The girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 2. Even though it was an evil spirit, it was telling the truth. That fellow knew who Paul was. That's why he said, "They are servants of the Most High God." That means He is above every other God, you don't have to go to any other God. Not only that but, "They are telling you the message of salvation." A lot of people are doubting the message of salvation but believing in scientific theory, doubting this and the other. We believe in a thousand things because we don't have the spiritual revelation the devil has. The devil is clear: God is the Most High God and the message is the true message of salvation. Acts 16:18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her. Can you see the power St. Paul carried? That isn't his power but divine power because the Holy Spirit lived inside of him, Jesus lived inside of him and when he gave that order, that demon had to leave. There is a beautiful example later on in the Acts of the Apostles where there were seven sons of a Jewish priest by the name of Sceva. These seven sons used to chase evil spirits and that was their ministry. When they came upon an evil spirit they said, "In the name of the God that Paul believes in, we order you to leave." It was a third person exorcism and the devil said, "Jesus I know, Paul I know, who are you? I don't know you." Then he jumped on them. The result is one guy left his clothes also and ran. Today, many people know Jesus only in the third person. Many Christians only know Jesus in the third person. Isn't it sad? We know about him, we have heard about him, we have learnt about him but we don't have the powerful authority of actually knowing him in our lives. Acts 16:19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone Who are the people who take it personally and become angry with you? People who think they will lose something. The people who are threatened become the most terrible opponents. Sometimes I have found that some of the very good people have become the greatest opponents when they feel they are about to lose something. So these people realized their hope of making money was gone. Acts 16:19 continued they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. Paul and Silas did a kind deed and exorcized this demon possessed woman. For doing these good deeds; they got some gifts: 1. Persecution That was an unexpected gift. We would have given up on the first gift itself! "I'll stay at home and go to sleep! Why should I be persecuted for trying to do good things?" Some people drop off at the first post.
Acts 16:20 They brought them before the magistrate and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar " They mentioned nothing about them wanting money and the demon possessed woman. Acts 16:21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. They wanted the judges on their side. So if they said, "They chased away a demon," the judges would have said, "So what?" So they said, "These people are telling us to do things the Romans don't agree with." So then they got the second gift. 1. Unjust accusations So if you don't go by the first gift, by now many would have left by the second. I have learnt this game. People who are angry with other people come to tell me. Now I'm 40 years into this game. As I listen they will tell me, "So and so did this terrible thing." If they think I'm not affected enough they say, "You know what they said about you?" They want to get me personally involved. Even in counseling you get the same thing. One spouse will tell you how to counsel the spouse before the other one comes. Just to make sure I'm on the same page they will say, "You know, he doesn't really like you." They did the same thing with Paul and Silas. They got the judge prejudiced. Acts 16:22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 1. Thrashing There is no end to the gifts they were given. They got a thrashing. Anyone who was holding on thinking that things will get better, at the third one, definitely they would have left. It would seem that god is powerless. I was watching a clip where a scientist says, "God can't be two things at the same time. He can't be all good and all powerful at the same time. If He is all powerful, He should have intervened and if He was all good, He has to do something. Either He is powerless and He can't intervene, or He is not good and He is wicked." Men are so arrogant to assume that this limited, human brain can fully comprehend the greatness of God. No wonder we are suffering. So being stripped and beaten is not enough apparently; they also got a thrashing. Acts 16:23 After they had been severely flogged God must have been having a siesta at this time because He was not doing much. Acts 16:23 continued they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
1. Jail Acts 16:24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 1. Chains They were locked up in chains. If they were running with understanding, by now they would have been suffering with depression, disappointment, despondency. "Nobody loves me, nobody appreciates my work or anything I do." It is not just a lack of appreciation. This is terrible suffering. What were these two doing when they were suffering this way? Acts 16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Are they nuts? What kind of God can they sing to when God has let them down? Some people say, "My mother died and I don't want to believe in God anymore." How old is your mother? "90 years." I asked someone once why they don't come for the meeting anymore and they said, "I came for five years without stopping and then someone in my family broke their leg. What's the point?" After five years, they couldn't grasp it. Look at Paul and Silas. They were seeing the rule of God above this. They were praising and worshipping God and the other prisoners were listening to them. They were conducting a service! Tonight let me finish with the answer why. They were second generation Christians, they very close to the crucifixion event. They saw how Jesus suffered persecution, they saw how he died, and they saw how he rose from the dead. By this time they thought that to suffer was a great privilege God gave them. "I have been chosen to share in the ministry of the Lord Himself." 2000 years down the line, for any problem we run to someone who promises you they'll get rid of your problems. You will never grow without problems, you will never grow without a conflict, and you ll never find depth unless you walk in the Christian journey of hope. How do you know my argument is accurate? Let's look at Peter and John in the book of Acts. This is after they raised the cripple. They were taken to the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin chastised them. Joseph of Arimathea spoke to the Sanhedrin and convinced them to let them go. Acts 5:40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged.
They also got thrashed. When Paul was thrashed he knew others who were thrashed as well. Acts 5:40 continued Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. They threatened them and told them to shut their mouths. Acts 5:41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Somebody whips them and threatens them and they leave the place rejoicing. They are rejoicing because they were disgraced! When we suffer disgrace we are crying because we don't expect that because we have forgotten the inner journey. The inner journey is trusting in the goodness of God, divine experience and living within the promises of God.