Times Of Refreshing!

Acts 3:19

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,"

Repent means to change your mind and THINK differently! And in the case of the gospel, we should change our minds about the way we live, if we're living contrary to the word of God, change our minds about what we think on a daily basis. 

Converted means to bring over from one belief, view, or party to another. So if you believed in Muhammad and the teachings of Islam, you would stop practicing Islam, repent and be converted to Christianity, follow Jesus Christ and practice His teachings.

So if one repents and gets converted to Christ, your sins can and will be blotted out or forgiven so that you can be refreshed by the presence of the Lord.

So let me go back to the beginning and lay a solid foundation for us to understand why we need to repent and why we should repent.

Genes 3:1-13

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (They covered themselves)

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” and the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

From the first sin, man has been covering themselves, running and hiding from God, our Creator, the life giver, the Healer, the one who blesses us, and saves our soul. Why do we run from God when He loves us so much and only wants the best for us, He wants us to have eternal life, He wants to have a covenant relationship with us, He wants to walk with us in the cool of the day, but we keep running. Running to do things our way, running and resisting, and fighting against God to our own demise. 

Adam and Eve HEARD the sound of God walking in the garden and they HID themselves from the presence of the Lord. They knew God, walked with Him before, but after their sin they felt ashamed, afraid, guilty, sorrowful. Adam said he heard the Lords voice in the garden and he was afraid, he hid himself, he wasn't afraid before, but now, after their sin, he became afraid of God.

Fear is the bane of our existence, fear destroys us, hinders us, and keeps us from living the abundant life that Christ purchased for us on the cross.

Men fear the light, even hate the light, because the light exposes the darkness so you can see what's hidden!

John 3:18-21

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Adam and Eve knew that what they had done was wrong, they disobeyed God and their sin caused them to be afraid and hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. I wonder what would have happened if they would have asked God for forgiveness? But instead they started to play the blame game! Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent! 

What does God require from us so that times of refreshing may come from His presence? Repentance, confession, conversion, obedience, faith, and endurance until the end. 

Will you be refreshed?

In Jesus,

Tyrone

Let It Rain!

Joel 2:23-27

"Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you—The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God,Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame."

So many people are crying out across the nation and the world for God to pour out His Spirit one more time before Jesus returns. And that's exactly what He's going to do, but is everyone ready for it?

God does things suddenly, and many times He does something when you least expect it. But we can clearly see that the only thing that's going to wake up His people today is a great outpouring and refreshing of His Spirit.

It's been over a hundred years since the last outpouring of God's Spirit at 216 North Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles California. An outpouring that can only be compared to the day of Pentecost when the Lord poured out His Spirit on the one hundred and twenty disciples in the upper room.

Although many thousands of souls have been baptized in God's Holy Spirit since then, including myself! It hasn't been as wide spread and world reaching as it was with those two outpourings.

So how do revivals start? What's the catalyst that makes a great outpouring possible? Well when we look at scripture we find a few disciples, both men and women, who were faithful to the Lord, who believed in Him, and waited on Him and His word to be fulfilled. Those who were willing to go against the status quo and the religious traditions of the day.

The same is true almost two thousand years later when students of Charles F. Parham met together at Bethel Bible College in Topeka Kansas. Those brave souls studied the word of God and read the book of Acts and repeated what the first disciples did before the Spirit was poured out on them, they prayed, worshipped, and waited on the Lord.

"The students had several days of prayer and worship, and held a New Year's Eve "watch-night" service at Bethel (December 31, 1900). The next evening (January 1, 1901) they also held a worship service, and it was that evening that Agnes Ozman felt impressed to ask to be prayed for to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Immediately after being prayed for, she began to speak in what they referred to as "in tongues", speaking in what was believed to be a known language." (Wikipedia-Charles Fox Parham)

"As the Azusa Street Revival was coming to an end in the 1900s, it is recorded that Charles Parham, and William Seymour, on the same day, at two separate locations, prophesied that there will be another stronger move of God´s Spirit on the earth, which will take place 100 years from then. They said that it will be an outpouring of God´s Spirit and His Shekinah glory that would be greater and more far-reaching than what was experienced at Azusa."

Maria Woodsworth Etter prophesied “We are not yet up to the fullness of the former rain and when the latter rain comes, it will far exceed anything we have seen.” Also that “there will be a greater move of God in the next 100 years, the glory of which has never been seen…”

 2nd Corinthians 13:1

“By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”

"And He will cause the rain to come down for you—The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month."

Isn't January the first month? Well it is for us! Perhaps this January 1st 2018 will be the first month that God pours out His Spirit once again on the souls, praying, worshipping, crying out, and waiting upon Him! We can believe and we can hope!

In Jesus,

Tyrone

Tragedy To Triumph - The William Seymour Story

1st Corinthians 1:26-31

"For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

In Jesus,

Tyrone