Posted in Luke

Contending for More

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (and continue to ask) Him.” Luke 11:13

Our greatest need is more of the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus lets us know that even though we’re sinners (“evil”), we are the children of God and can just ask for more of the One who will overcome our lack and give us what we need for every situation we face. It may seem like God is delaying, but if we are persistent in our asking, He will give us His Holy Spirit. (See Luke 11:5-13) So why don’t we ask?

Some fifteen years ago when we lived in Montevideo, MN we got a computer game called, “Raptor.” It was straight forward and seemingly easy to play, so I initially loved competing with my ten year old son, Matthew. Then something horrible happened, he started beating me. The game centered around this fighter airplane you operated that shot down enemy aircraft as they tried to destroy you. The enemies increased as you went along, but you could also pick up money packs at different stages to buy more weapons. I always bought the weapons that I understood how to use, bombs and shields. But as I struggled to get through level one and only infrequently made it to level two, Matt started making it to the fourth and fifth levels every time he played.

“Dad, you need to buy different weapons to go higher. Let me show you how to do it.” Why was a ten year old having to show me how to do anything? I had a choice to make that day; either I keep my pride intact and continue to struggle, or I humble myself, admit I can’t do it on my own, and allow my ten year old son to teach me how to acquire the weapons that will take me to the higher levels. He taught me and I began to gain confidence with my new weapons. That which had seemed impossible before became second nature, and enemies that had intimidated me before were now on the retreat. I was amazed at how much difference having the right weapons made.

The advantage we need to fight the Christian battle more successfully is not going to come from us trying harder, but from us asking more. The Holy Spirit has gifts He is waiting to give us if we would only humble ourselves and start contending for what only He can give.

Posted in 2Samuel, John

The Michal Spirit

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

‘How the king of Israel distinguished himself today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants’ maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself!’ … “I will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be distinguished.’ Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.” 2Samuel 6:20; 22-23

It was a great moment for the kingdom of God. David had conferred with all the leaders and there was great unity in the decision to bring the ark of God back and to make a place for it in Jerusalem. There was celebrating, rejoicing, dancing, and great wonder in the people of God because something significant was happening in their day and they were privileged to be part of it.

Unfortunately one of the main members of the team, David’s own wife, Michal, couldn’t participate. Instead of being part of the celebration, she was sitting on the sidelines despising David and everything that was going on. Before we rush to judgment on Michal, I think we need to get in her shoes.

She was a king’s daughter. She knew how to do things the right way and she probably wasn’t even consulted. What she was seeing was not the way her Dad, the king, had done it, so her own experience and tradition were actually in the way of her accepting what God was doing.

I’ve been under the Michal spirit before and it is miserable. Here are a few signs that you may be under its influence:

  1. You don’t enjoy God anymore. 
  2. You find you can’t enjoy people because you’re so critical.
  3. You can’t enjoy church because of what’s wrong with the preaching, or the worship, or something else.
  4. You are spiritually barren. There’s no such thing as being dead and right in Christianity. However right you may think you are, when you’re dead, you’re not right. (John 5:39-40)

The good news is that if we will agree with God about our sins, He will forgive us, and can remove the barrenness the Michal spirit causes.

Posted in John, Luke

Ministers of Forgiveness

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“’Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.’” John 20:21-23

I grew up in a tradition that took this verse to mean that there were some men who had the authority to forgive sins on this earth. The truth is that only God can forgive sins, but He has placed the authority to give the conditions of forgiveness to His people. This is John’s version of the great commission.  Jesus is sending them out to preach the gospel which at its core is about forgiveness that God has made possible. The church has the authority to assure those who meet God’s conditions that they are forgiven, and the responsibility of being careful not to promise forgiveness when those conditions are not met.

The first condition is faith in Christ. The idea that I must be forgiven because God is a “forgiving God” is false. God is loving, and God is just, and in His love He sent His only begotten Son to pay the penalty His justice required, so that anyone who believed in Jesus would not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) There is no forgiveness outside of Christ, only justice for our sins.

The second condition for forgiveness is repentance. In the exact scene of our text above Luke records a more expansive version of what Jesus said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48) The church has no authority to offer forgiveness without repentance which means both a confession and a turning away from sins committed.

In the tradition I grew up in I was regularly told my sins were forgiven when in fact, they weren’t. I was living for myself and adding a little religion; that is not repentance. If we don’t repent and live for God, it doesn’t matter how much religion we add to our lives, we won’t be saved in the end.

Does God want us to live in fear? Absolutely not!  It’s His good pleasure to give us the kingdom. We just need to treat our forgiveness as something precious to be protected by a life that honors God, and not trampled on by a life that presumes that God has to forgive.

Posted in Acts, John, Mark

The Authority of the Believer

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  John 14:12-14

One Monday morning I needed to meet someone for an early appointment, but I couldn’t leave without my cell phone and it was lost. I looked in all the usual places, but it wasn’t there. Everyone else was still sleeping and I certainly didn’t want to wake them up, but I could see no other alternative than calling my own number and letting it ring until I found it. I was stunned when after dialing l felt a vibration and heard a ring coming out of my own left pocket. 

Almost immediately after finding the “lost” phone in my pocket, I sensed the Lord whispering something in my thoughts: “This is how believers are with authority.” Think about it. We as believers are often looking for someone else who can pray for us. or deliver us or who can hear God for us, yet the authority to pray powerfully is already in us. Every believer already has the equipment connecting them to God’s voice and power in their hearts, it is God’s gift to us in Christ, but it doesn’t do much good if we don’t recognize that we have it.

God’s plan was that those who believe in Jesus would walk in the same authority as He did by using His Name. Jesus gave the first sign of those who believe: “In My Name they will cast out demons…” (Mark 16:17) Not the first sign following apostles, or pastors, or those who have walked with the Lord for at least 30 years; but the first sign following those who “believe.” The right to use Jesus’ Name is a privilege every one who believes in Him has been given.

Peter was very conscious of this authority when he replied to the lame man who begged him for money: “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!” (Acts 3:6) Are you conscious that you possess the authority of Jesus Name, or are you still looking around the kingdom to find someone else who has it?

Posted in Isaiah, John

Doing the Works of Redemption

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4

The disciples were confronted with a man who had been born blind, so they wanted to seek a reason for this calamity. They asked Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?” Jesus replied that neither answer was right, “but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus didn’t dwell on those things that sin and Satan have brought into this world. His view was that all situations can be turned around and become a showcase for God’s redemption. He wants us to gain the same viewpoint.

Notice that He doesn’t say “I” must do the work, but “we.” He was modeling for His disciples the kind of works they would be doing after He was gone. A few chapters later He makes the same point in an even clearer way: “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12)

Jesus did two kinds of work while He was on planet earth: Isaiah 53 work and Isaiah 61 works. Isaiah 53:5 tells of the work He did on the cross for us: “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” This is finished work and it is work that only He could do. All we can do is receive that work and be grateful for the forgiveness of our sins.

Isaiah 61:1 tells of the works of His ministry by the anointing of the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners.” This work He began while He was on earth but would be carried on by His disciples under the anointing of the same Spirit. Jesus modeled this work for them and then commissioned them to allow Him to continue these same works through them.

The church today preaches Jesus’ finished work of Isaiah 53 but largely ignores our responsibility to practice the Isaiah 61 works. I believe God is changing that. He wants us to recognize in a greater way the power of the Holy Spirit in us, and He wants us to gain His viewpoint, so that we can join Him each day in the works of redemption.

Posted in 1Thessalonians, Acts

Judging Prophecy 

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.” 1Thessalonians 5:19-21

When we despise prophecy we quench the Holy Spirit. Prophecy is God speaking today directly into our lives and situations, so why would people who love God ever despise Him speaking to them?

Some people despise prophecy because they don’t think God speaks any more in that way. Today, they reason, God only speaks to us through the Bible so anybody who claims to hear God directly comes under suspicion. The problem with this is that the book of Acts is the New Testament church in action and God speaks directly all the time through visions, dreams, impressions, angels, and prophets. There are no Scriptures which indicate this type of prophetic activity would ever be withdrawn from the church except for a few verses that people quote horribly out of context. People that don’t believe God speaks today are arguing from their experience, or rather lack of experience, and not from the Bible.

Others despise prophecy because they have been burned by it. They’ve seen people use the phrase, “God told me,” to enforce their own agenda or to validate their own opinion in such a way that they are deeply suspicious of any prophetic experience. Some have been damaged by following a so-called “prophetic word” when it turned out to only be a person trying to be prophetic, and not God speaking at all. When you’ve been hurt in that way it is easy to harden your heart. 

My opinion is that if you don’t feel free to judge the prophetic you will end up despising it. Paul says to “examine everything carefully…” In the Old Testament prophecy came externally to those God appointed and the penalty for being wrong was death. New Testament prophecy, on the other hand, comes from the inside of a believer (where the Holy Spirit lives) and through our yet imperfect souls. Because of this reality we have to be discerning, but should never allow ourselves to become cynical. After Paul tells us to examine everything carefully, he tells us to “hold fast to that which is good.”

God loves us and He wants to speak to us. I pray we embrace the potential of hearing God today, and the freedom to exercise discernment so we don’t get trapped by anything that is not from the Spirit.

Posted in Exodus, Jeremiah, John, Revelation

Drinking the Spirit

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39

We will never have rivers flowing out of us into this needy world until we learn how to regularly drink of God’s precious Spirit. It is not enough to believe in the Spirit, or even acknowledge our need for the Spirit; we must drink. Why don’t we regularly drink of the Spirit?

  1. We don’t drink because we are often trying to get a drink of something this world offers. “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) Sports, TV, hunting, fishing, video games, work, and education are all neutral things unless we are looking to them for the renewal that only God can give, then they become leaky cisterns. Alcohol, pornography, gambling, smoking, and drugs are often the doorways to addiction for desperate people that started out only knowing that there was a thirst in their souls. God said that He alone is a fountain; an unending supply of renewal and refreshing for those who truly bring their thirst to Him.
  2. We don’t drink because we presume we already have drunk because we go to church, pray, and read the Bible. One of the saddest pictures in the Bible is Jesus outside the door of His own church knocking in Revelation 3:20. He has everything they need but He’s unable to give it to them because they have adjusted their lives and expectations to what they already have so they aren’t even asking for more. “I have need of nothing,” is what they say. 
  3. We don’t drink because we aren’t confident of God’s heart toward us. Exodus 34:14 in the New Living Translation says, “The Lord your God is passionate about His relationship with you.” God doesn’t just love you and me, He likes us. He wants to be with us. Jesus didn’t just die so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven some day. He died so that we could come into God’s presence now, and regularly drink of His Spirit.
Posted in 1Peter, Acts, John

Thirsty for God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” John 7:37

Are you thirsty for God? Not thirsty for knowledge about God; not thirsty for God to do something for you; but thirsty for God Himself? The reward for drinking the very presence of God into your spirit is that “rivers of living water” will flow out of your innermost being in blessing to those around you. (John 7:38) Ministry is more than what we do, it is whose strength we do it in. Peter says, “whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.” (1Peter 4:11)

Serving God in our own power will quickly burn us out and leave a chip on our shoulder that says subconsciously, “I did this for God, so now He owes me.” We become dry and eventually bitter if we work without drinking. Make no mistake about it – what God gets out of this relationship is not the work we do for Him. Listen to Acts 17:24-25 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything.” God doesn’t need us, He’s in it for the fellowship we give Him while serving Him.

Several years ago I was overwhelmed by the presence of the Lord in a time of personal worship and kept saying, “I will do anything for you, I will do anything for you…”, when I had a clear stream of thoughts interrupt my prayer that went something like this: “I don’t want you to do anything for Me; everything I’m calling you to do, I’m calling you to do with Me.” Since that time I’ve tried to remember that God delights in relationship and that I must always drink of Him while working for Him. Make sure you take time to drink today.

Posted in 1Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Hebrews, Romans

Walking in the Spirit

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1Corinthians 2:14-16

Beware of one facet of the carnal nature in you Scripture calls, “the natural man.” The natural man wants to believe and obey only what he understands completely. He won’t do anything until he knows that he won’t look stupid or foolish in front of others, therefore our natural man is incapable of living by faith and cannot please God. (See Hebrews 11:6; Romans 8:8)

It is easy to be born of the Spirit at some point in the past, but not walk in the Spirit today. When that happens we are miserable as Christians, kind of like fish out of water. Our proper habitat is the spirit realm, so when we go back to living like those in the world we become spiritually choked.

Signs of a Christian living in the natural man include anxiety, joylessness, cynicism, discouragement, and feeling spiritually drained all the time.  The answer is not complicated; put off the old man and walk in the Spirit. (Ephesians 4:22-23; Galatians 5:25) Start by asking God to forgive you for trying to live the Christian life by the natural man, then remember that your rightful breath is the Holy Spirit, your proper food is the Word of God, and your sure hope for eternity is heaven no matter what happens down here. You have only God to please, so it doesn’t matter whether others approve of you or not.

The language of the Spirit does not contradict our minds, but it does transcend it. His many ways of whispering to us must be spiritually appraised, so we must stay alert to the spirit realm. God is in charge of planning, protecting, providing, and guiding.  We are in charge of trusting and obeying. It’s a nice arrangement when we do our part and don’t question His!

Posted in 1John, John

The Life of God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

The Greek word for life in this passage is “zoe.” Vines’ Greek dictionary defines zoe: “Life in the absolute sense, life as God has it, that which the Father has in Himself, and which He gave to the Incarnate Son to have in Himself and which the Son manifested in the world.” John 1:4 reads, “In Him was life (zoe) and that life was the light of men.” The gospel is not just the forgiveness of our sins or just a promise that we’ll go to heaven some day or just a guide that gives us better rules to live by. Praise God it is all of those things, but it’s more. The gospel tells the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection so that those who believe can receive the very life of God into their spirits. When we are born again we are born of God and His very life resides in us. “I have come that they may have life (zoe)…” Jesus came so that His life could be in you!

The key to the victorious Christian life is to let God’s life flow through us instead of getting stuck in our old carnal nature. “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1John 5:4) When we try to live by following our emotions, our addictions, our common sense, or our will power we are missing a much bigger plan. Let the life of God rise up in you; drink of Jesus’ life so that “rivers of living water” may flow out of your innermost being. (John 7:38) Stop analyzing the old and start meditating on the new.

If we walk in His life we will be lights to those around us without even working at it. “In Him was life and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)  Let’s get filled and shine more, so that the people who are around us each day might be drawn to Christ and His wonderful gospel.