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Dr. Ronald Powell
This Week's Message:
The Power of Your Testimony
James 1
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
*Introduction
- Every testimony shared creates a prophetic environment and anointing for a miracle to be duplicated.
- Your testimonies contain the revelation of God's goodness, his nature and his ways. Each of us who have experienced the Good and the Perfect have received treasures from God which when shared with everyone is like opening a treasure chest filled with perfect gems.
- For those who are hearing, it is like having a gift given to them that when it is unwrapped, it is like giving the most unimaginable gift of God's goodness.
- Psalm 103 showers the reader with treasures that can be scattered about in such a way to cause one to say "I lay claim to that!``
Psalm 103
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
*BUT TODAY I WANT TO LOOK AT THE MOTIVATION AN WARNING OF NOT REMEMBERING AND SHARING YOUR TESTIMONIES.
Hebrews 3
5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
*ISRAEL LIVED IN A TIME OF CONTINUOS MIRACLES.
- PROBLEM: They became complacent, hard hearted like spoiled children they had been given so much they began to be bored with God's provisions and goodness.
- It is possible to get bored with miracles. Israel in the beginning was grateful for the manna appearing day after day but after a while they got tired of it.
- Israel had a drive to see God's intervention without wanting to see God!
- It created something of an addiction for the miracles but not for God.
*Let's look at Psalms 78:40-43/ How Israel Limited God
Psalm 78:40-43
King James Version (KJV)
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
How did Israel put Restraints on God?
By not remembering the signs, miracles, and ways of God
Any time you enter your own agendas and forget you are here for His good purposes, you can restrain God, holding back the heart of God from Humanity.
In this passage God said you have restrained Me because you forgot my miracles, sign, and wonders which I wrought for you in Egypt.
Israel continually backslid into a place of forgetting and complaining about God not doing what they wanted. they continually forgot the last miracles that God performed.
In Psalm 103:7 it says; 7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
GOD HAD MORE IN MIND FOR ISRAEL
Exodus 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
What's so profound about this verse is that it was God's very intent to have a Kingdom of Holy Priest not just a Levitical tribe. An entire nation of priest... think about that when you think about the Kingdom of God in the New Covenant.
God chose an entire nation to have unusual access to the throne room where they minister to God and He ministers to them.
BUT
They talked with Moses and said we want a mediator.
The children of Israel said they would do what God said, but they did not want a face to face talk with him lest we die. (Think of it, they did not want a personal relationship with God.) Israel chose to set their own boundaries with God. God in His mercy still allowed the people of Israel to observe His acts because they teach people His ways, even though the people limited His access to them.
At that very moment they severed themselves from the priestly ministry as a nation and a personal relationship with God forever.
MOSES ON THE OTHER HAND WAS DIFFERENT:
Exodus 33:13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
Moses wanted to know God and His ways without boundaries. He was not seeking provision but a personal knowledge of God.
Moses wanted to know the acts of God, because acts or signs always reveal God's ways and character.
The Signs of God, and The miracles of God are to be followed back to God to see His nature and Character.... to Know Him in the Power of His might.
AGAIN: Psalm 103:7 it says; 7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Why? God gave them both what they had asked for! Israel Chose God's activities and Moses Chose God!
The end of the story for Israel was success followed by failure!
Moses end story was God knew him face to face! (this is the only way to not become complacent and cold hearted in a miracle culture.)
*You can live in a miracle culture and fail miserably when you limit Our Heavenly Father's access to only signs and wonders.
*Note Miracles are not the Key to the Kingdom! Moses presented the only option when he said I want to know your ways so that I may Know You!
Closing:
God's ways testify of Him and open the door for others to know him too!
Signs (are according to Mark 16 for the unbelieving.) They Give God a chance to confirm His Word... Himself to the unbelieving. They are also a privilege for those will to share the gems of God's powerful ways to a generation of lost and dying.
God wants His People His Priest to let the World know He is Good..
Let's Pray... Pray as did Moses.
Father... I want to know your ways that I might know you! (SAY IT AGAIN!)
Father... keep us from that just grotesque miracle addiction that actually builds a callousness toward your presence. We don't want to have anything to do with that. We don't want to derive anything from what you do through us, but simply want to know who you are in us.
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen
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