Immanuel - God is with us

Matthew 1:23 ‘“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”’ (NKJV)

Isaiah 7:14 ‘“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”’ (NKJV)

Judges 6:12-13 ‘And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valour!” Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”’ (NKJV)

Philippians 2:13-14 ‘Therefore, my beloved … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.’ (NKJV)

One of the things people come with for counselling and prayer is that things are not working out in their life; they seem to be always going to work out, and then something comes down and stops them. It is so frustrating when our life is in the hands of the Midianites like that, and it can happen to God’s good people.

It can make us feel that some sort of spiritual warfare has overtaken us and that we are helpless against it. The Gideon in us asks, ‘How can we say God is with us, when it seems more as if He has abandoned us?’

Paul says we have to work out our salvation. It is not enough to say Jesus has saved us; we also have to work out our salvation on a daily basis. Jesus is our Saviour every day. We have to bring salvation into those difficult areas and overcome those blockages.

Working out our salvation does not mean we have to do it all ourselves. I am not my own saviour. If I am looking for salvation in any area of my life, there is only one place I can go for salvation, and that is to Jesus. I have to ask Jesus to be Saviour in that particular situation.

The angel called Gideon a mighty man of valour, and he says in verse 14:

“Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (NKJV)

Gideon was the least in his tribe, a small tribe, but the angel called him a mighty man of valour because God was with him. If Jesus is your Saviour, Immanuel, God-with-us, you are that mighty man or woman of valour. God is in that might of yours and God will save you from the hands of the Midianites.

Isaiah 63:1 gives an insight into how Jesus makes us mighty in valour; it is because He himself who is with us is that mighty man of valour.

‘Who is this who comes from Edom, from the city of Bozrah, with his clothing stained red?

Who is this in royal robes, marching in his great strength?

It is I, the Lord, announcing your salvation! It is I, the Lord, who has the power to save!’ (NLT)

On Christmas day, we celebrate the birth of Jesus with a Mass, or Eucharist, at which we remember the death of Jesus. The message is the same, whether in his birth or in his death: Jesus is Immanuel, God-with-us, and He comes to us with the power to save.

Should I wish you a merry Christmas? In this country, this year, I prefer to say, ‘Have a simple Christmas’. However, if Jesus is truly your Saviour, you can go in that might of yours and have a happy Christmas and a fresh new start for the New Year.

Chantelle, Confirmation, & Tongues

Confirmation is one of the seven sacraments and baptism in the Spirit is the basic Pentecostal experience. How do these relate?

Chantelle surprised us when she started praying in tongues. She had come to the Community House seeking help and when we prayed for her, she began to speak out strongly in tongues.

She was a new person so we did not think she had been baptised in the Spirit and we asked her if she had prayed in tongues before. She replied that she had; it was the day of her confirmation. The bishop had explained before the ceremony that he was confirming people in order for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

She took this seriously and prayed for the Holy Spirit; she carried on after the ceremony and even into the night. At around 12:00 midnight, she prayed in tongues, as she had this day, but did not really know what it was.

Chantelle was baptised in the Spirit, with the evidence of praying in tongues, following the reception of the sacrament of confirmation. Just imagine!

Whether this was from the power of the sacrament, or from her earnestness in seeking the Holy Spirit, is hard to tell; perhaps it was a bit of both.

So what is the difference between the sacrament of confirmation and prayer for baptism in the Spirit? People are afraid of that question. They know that one is the official ceremony that only bishops or designated priests perform, so they do not like to question it. The other is God coming in unofficially, using anyone who is ready, and generally using him or her effectively. Both, however, have the same objective, that people receive the Holy Spirit.

The sacraments work on the ‘ex opere operato’ principle. This means that the effectiveness of the sacrament comes wholly from the performance of the sacramental rite, and not from the worthiness of the minister, or from what the minister preaches on the occasion, etc. This is very convenient. You just have to believe there is a change in the person. If you cannot see it now, you will see it in the next life.

In a Life in the Spirit Seminar, you have to work hard to prepare people for baptism in the Spirit. A Seminar can sometimes be more effective and sometimes less; it can even fail altogether. It very much helps if the persons giving the Seminar are living a good life and are operating in the Spirit.

We see the results from the phenomena that can be there when the Spirit comes upon a person, including tongues, and more importantly, from the change for the better in a person’s life. If there is no change, we presume that nothing has happened.

We have heard since that the ministry we did for Chantelle is bringing her a big blessing. If the Holy Spirit is at work, something wonderful will happen. Would something wonderful happen, if we approached the administration of the sacrament of confirmation in the same way as we approach a Seminar?