Pastortimteague's Blog

April 17, 2010   John 20.31

The operative phrase in John 20.31 this passage for us is “but these have been written.”  John had just told us that there were many things that Jesus did that were not recorded.  He then adds the words…”but these have been written” which has several indications for me. 

First, things that God in his infinite wisdom knew we would need to read and live by were given to men by revelation of the Holy Spirit.  Second, there were things not recorded that were either duplicate works or God knew we would not need.  We have to trust that every jot ant tittle in scripture was inspired for us today.

Hence, the recording of the works of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Holy Spirit and the reception of the Holy Spirit in deeply personal and intimate fashion.  God knew we would need the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  He led Luke to write about the giving and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. 

On this Pentecostal journey I want you to realize several things.  One, Holy Writ includes the personhood of the Holy Spirit and how He can come into our lives in a real and practical way.    Second, the promise of the Holy Spirit is for you.  Third, this Gift is received by simple faith.  Fourth, when you receive the Gift you will receive evidence in a powerful way that you have received the gift.  There will be an initial evidence – not an only evidence – but an initial evidence.

Evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit is found in scripture on several occasions.  The outward physical evidence of the inward working of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.  Most people focus on tongues instead of the Gift itself.  I often tell people if you unwrap a gift you focus on the entire gift – you don’t get hung up with the wrapping paper and ribbon and bows.   The focus is on the gift inside – not the evidence of the gift.   An unwrapped gift is evidenced by wrapping paper, ribbon and bows.  But the real gift is on the inside of the box.  The Gift of the Holy Spirit is evidenced by tongues (ribbons and bows) but the real “Gift” is the personhood of the Holy Spirit.

We can get caught up with the evidence.  There is no doubt that the evidence is important to our overall reception of the Gift but we shouldn’t get hung up on tongues.   Tongues happens.  You don’t have to force yourself to speak in tongues.  You don’t have to initiate tongues with any type of assistance in the flesh.  It just happens.  There comes a time in your receiving the gift that you just speak.  Now then, you have to open your mouth and speak.  He will not force you to speak.  The sounds and syllables that come off the tip of your tongue will sound like nothing you have heard before.  Here is where people stop and quench the work of the Holy Spirit.  The sounds will be unintelligible to human understanding.   They may sound like “gibberish” at first but it is a viable language in the supernatural.  You will speak in tongues when you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Isaiah 28.11 refers to this language initially as a “stammering” tongue.  The Hebrew inference for “stammering” is simply “foreign” or in other words speaking in a foreign language.

When you receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit you will begin to speak in a foreign language.  Think about this for a moment.  If I ask you to speak in German and you have never learned to speak German – it would be virtually impossible for you to do so.   This is why scripture says that you will speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives you the utterance.   The Holy Spirit will give you the inspiration, the utterance, the words to speak.   He will enable your tongue to speak His language. 

I encourage you during this journey to seek out this gift.  If you have never received the Gift of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues or a foreign language – I urge you to do so.   Out of all Holy Scriptures given God made sure this was in the package.  Read Acts 2, pray in faith and ask the Lord to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.  And…don’t be afraid of the ribbons and bows!

April 16, 2010    John 20.30

Scripture is clear that Jesus was a busy man!  We know what He did and why He did it…but we don’t know how often He did what He did.   Wow!  That was a mouth full!  This passage of Scripture indicates that if everything Jesus did was recorded – it would take multiple libraries to hold the writings!  Think about that for a moment!

Jesus was a busy man!  Not much solace for lazy believers!  Oh well, that’s another story for another time!  The bottom line here is that Jesus performed his Father’s will perpetually.  He was in constant motion.  He came to please the Father and destroy the works of the devil.  That is a schedule that none of us can keep up with but the glorious thing is that we don’t have to.  He did it for us!   Perpetually moving against the established evil in the world was his portfolio of activity.  Constantly confronting Satan and his organized structure opposing works.  When we read of Satan confronting Jesus in Matthew 4 we only see a small microcosm of what actually happened around the clock with Satan’s confrontations with Jesus.   Paul the apostle himself had a thorn in the flesh to deal with (2 Corinthians 12) on a daily basis.  A messenger of Satan who opposed Paul for the constant revelations of truth given to him.  Imagine for a moment where Christ fit in Satan’s priorities of hindrance.  Jesus was Truth in the flesh.   I believe that Jesus was under constant attack from Satan himself and we only have a few passages of scripture to indicate the actual physical confrontations He endured.

Jesus engaged in the work of the Father seven twenty four’s!  Imagine for just a moment what Jesus is doing for you personally.  Every day Jesus and His host of angels assigned to you – are in motion.  They are working on your behalf.   You may not “see” the physical manifestations of His work for you.  You many not “feel” His presence with you all the time.   What we do have are those moments of manifestation – like we do in Holy Writ.  We get the privilege of knowing that He is working on our behalf when we see Him heal, move mountains and sense His presence.  But the truth of the matter is that He is there.  All the time.   His eternal promise to you and I is that He is with us constantly.  He never leaves us or even considers forsaking us (Hebrews 13.5). 

During this journey to Pentecost I want you to come to a personal realization that He is with you.  His desire is to give you peace that passes all understanding.  His desire is to give you abundant life.  His desire is to empower you to live through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Arriving at the point of receiving the fullness of the Spirit in baptism and speaking in tongues is not difficult.  He is working toward you receiving all that the Father has willed for you.  Why would you want anything less than the most powerful Gift you could receive outside of salvation?  Empowerment for daily living is yours for the asking.   I want you to know that once you focus on receiving – He is committed to you receiving.   He has secured the Gift of the Holy Spirit just for you.  He is working in ways you can’t even imagine to get you to the point of being hungry and thirsting for the Gift.   He is working behind the scenes.  He wants you to know the fullness of His Spirit.   The Gift is there.  All you have to do is unwrap it.  How do you unwrap it?  Simple.  Believe the Gift is for you.  Open with radical faith.  Open without any preconceived ideas of what’s in the box.  Open as if you’re being made aware of it for the first time in your life.   Go on!  I double dog dare you to reach out and grab the Gift of the fullness of the Spirit.  Don’t hesitate when you sense Him speaking through you.  It’s His language – not yours.  Let Him fill you up with His awesome Spirit!  Take the journey!

April 15, 2010     John 20.29

Real blessings come to those who believe and don’t see.  Isn’t this the epitome of faith?  When Jesus exclaimed to Thomas that those in future generations would be blessed because they would believe and not see him physically – He was speaking of you and I.  Wow!  Think about that for just a moment.  

Nearly 2000 years ago Jesus miraculously looked into the future and grabbed the millions of people who would believe in Him for salvation – although they have never seen Him.   He was taking Thomas from doubt to faith and to a place of discipline about the dynamic of faith.  Thomas couldn’t believe in a resurrected Lord.  It took, literally, a hands on approach to knowing Jesus was real.   Once Thomas jumped that hurdle – he was on to a new level of experience with Jesus.  But…you and I cannot put our hands on the scars of Jesus.  We cannot experience Him by touch.   We can only experience Him by faith.   This was a kingdom principle that Jesus had taught His disciples for a little over three years.  They had a hard time getting this lesson.   It was a simple lesson of faith.   

For you and I today it is matter of radical faith.   Every day we experience chaos to some degree in our life.  Our faith experience is challenged.  Our relationship with Jesus is challenged.  For some believers – it’s a struggle just to get out of bed and face the events of the day before us.   But faith doesn’t have to be hard.  Faith is the simple task of believing in something that we cannot see.  It’s about hope.  I remind of Hebrews 11.  Faith is the title-deed to things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.   If I can hold it, touch it, hear it, see it or taste it – I don’t need faith for it.  I have the manifestation of desire in my hand.  Faith is that radical mental surrender to the nonexistent side of our life.  It’s what we hang hope on.  Faith is something that stretches our spiritual muscles to reach farther than we ever have before.  Faith is the deed to our desires.  When you own a piece of property you own a deed.  You have a piece of paper that gives you judicial title to the land.  No one can take it from you.  It belongs to you.  When you put faith in Christ – the deed to ownership is your faith.  Your faith is your deed to hope.  Once you have what you have placed your faith in – you no longer need faith.   Faith is a perpetual dynamic that will take us through our eternal goal – heaven.  We will see Him face to face because now I have a deed to prove my relationship with him – it is my faith.  When I see Him I will no longer need to live by faith.  Aren’t you glad Jesus included in His awesome plan for eternity and mentioned us specifically to Thomas nearly 2000 years ago?

April 14, 2010    John 20.26-28

Thomas was given an opportunity you and I will never have.  He saw and physiologically experienced Jesus like none other.  As far as we know – Thomas did what no one else ever did.  He put his fingers into the actual scars that Jesus bore from Calvary.    Jesus gave Thomas this opportunity because He knew that Thomas was struggling with belief.  What a caring and loving Savior!

I wonder how many people have come face to face with an experience with the Holy Spirit only to walk away due to doubt and unbelief?  Think about it for a moment.  How many of you have never experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit?  How many of you have never experienced speaking in other tongues as the Holy Spirit enables you?  How many of you have never experienced the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as recorded in 1 Corinthians 12?   And now I would ask,”Why?”

Are we modern day Thomas’s?  Have we raised up a generation of people who second guess this awesome experience?  To be honest…I think so!  I want to challenge you.  I want to challenge you to be open, honest and radical with your faith and your experience with the Holy Spirit.  Every gift in the scripture is one of grace.  God grace’s us with His gifts.  Jesus Himself was a Gift of grace and mercy.  The fullness of the Holy Spirit is a gift (Greek: dorea).  The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit given to edify the church in 1 Corinthians are gifts (charisma).   Somehow I want to challenge your faith to believe that receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is as easy as receiving the gift of salvation.  God didn’t give us these gifts to complicate our lives.  He gave them to us to empower us for daily living.  I urge you to push forward and ask the Lord to increase your desire to experience the fullness of the Spirit.

We are often inhibited by fear and doubt in the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  My focus for now is the gift of the fullness of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost in the upper room.  These one hundred and twenty plus believers entered the upper room nearly two thousand years ago not knowing what to expect – and received the Promise of the Spirit without hesitation.  Wham! Bam! Slam!  No questions asked!  No committees appointed to see if this was the real deal!  They received what the knew was the Promise and took it to the streets.  Thousands were brought into the kingdom due to their diligence and their blind faith.

But wait a minute!  Did they receive out of blind faith and ignorance put together?  Is part of the problem that we “know too much” about the Holy Spirit?  Have we allowed the nay-sayers, the frauds and the charlatans to rob us of a scriptural experience?  Have we listened to everyone and everything but the Word?   I say yes to these questions and more.  I challenge you to take a huge erasure and clear your mind of all you have ever been told and all you have ever seen in relationship to the Holy Spirit that comes anywhere near that which would give seed to doubt and fear.  Erase it.  There you go. Now pick up a Bible and start reading the book of Acts.  Read with a virgin mentality.  Be diligent in your reading.  Read Acts 2 over and over.  Get the Word of God into your spirit man instead of the word of man.  Man can only produce that which is imperfect.  The Word is perfect.  Read it and let it sink into your spirit.

Now believe you can receive.   You don’t have to be in church, at an altar or have seventeen people laying hands on you.   Go ahead.  Believe the Promise of the Holy Spirit is a Gift for you personally.  You don’t have to be a certain age. You don’t have to be perfect.  You don’t have to be an experienced believer.  Just believe it’s for you.  Now relax and pray.  Allow the Holy Spirit to fill you up like a glass of water.  Allow His Spirit to fill you up to over flowing.  That movement in your tongue is not by your initiative.  It’s the Holy Spirit using your tongue to speak His language.  It’s like you telling little Johnny, “Go tell your dad this or that!”  You child would speak for you.  He would repeat your words using his or her mouth.  When you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit that’s what is happening.  The Holy Spirit is using your vocal chords to speak His language.  His language of praise to the Father.  He will glorify the Father through your voice. 

Now then – I don’t understand all the “mechanics” of this awesome experience and gift.  But what I do know is that since I was fifteen years old my life has been empowered by the Holy Spirit.  My life has never been the same.  My prayer life grows every day.  Every time I speak in tongues I am reminded of the awesome fact that the Holy Spirit resides in me.  He lives in me and therefore uses my vocal chords to speak His message.  He uses my voice to pray and intercede for me.   I’m humbled by this simple, indescribable and undeniable fact. 

I challenge you to pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life.  Thomas had to overcome doubt and fear by a personal experience with Jesus that he could tangibly sense with his own body.  The Gift of the Holy Spirit works very similar to us.  We can physically (speaking in tongues) sense the Lord in our life in a deeply personal way.  Now then…what are you waiting for?  Find an altar of prayer, make a place of prayer, take your Bible with you.  Now relax and begin praying for the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  Go for it.  It’s the best real free Gift you will ever experience.

April 13, 2010    John 20.26

It was one week later (after Easter) that Jesus walked through closed doors to confront Thomas.  This is amazing!  Remember it was Peter that Jesus personally asked for after His resurrection (Mark 16.7).   Now it was time for Jesus to get up close and personal with Thomas.  Both of these man had their “issues” to deal with.   Both of them had their excess “baggage” that needed to be emptied.  But Jesus goes out of His way to deal with both of them.   With Thomas he takes no chances at losing an opportunity to confront his doubt.  He enters through locked doors.  Absolutely amazing!

I wonder how many of us are filled with doubt and unbelief and we hide behind “closed doors” thinking that we can keep it to ourselves.  Heaven forbid that we reveal our inward doubts, fears and unbelief!   But Jesus knows us and understands us like no one else can.  He specifically targets those of us who wrestle with doubt and unbelief.  Why?  I can only answer this from experience – both personally and ministerially. 

Doubt is something we wrestle with before any facts or truth is revealed.  We doubt such and such – until we are given facts to substantiate whatever it is we’re doubting.  Doubt doesn’t have to have any substantial evidence for belief to begin with.  We can the absolute existence of something long before we ever are confronted with the manifestation of it.

Second, this thing of unbelief.  We have all held hands with it at some point in our life.  Someone once said that unbelief was belief that has come undone.  Like a shoe that was tied and has become untied.  Unbelief then is something or someone we have believed in only to find our “faith knot” has come untied.  We have been wrestled to the mat of belief and we have been pinned by the opponent and we are now “tapping out.”  All  of us have been there at one point or another.

But this is the type of issues that Jesus wants so desperately to prove Himself through.  He wants to challenge our unbelief.  He wants to challenge our doubt.  He so desperately wants to bring us back to a point of strong belief.  Belief is trusting someone or something with sheer uninhibited faith.   But here we are…behind closed doors.  Go ahead and shut the door.  Go ahead and lock it if you please.   There will come a time when Jesus will approach you and enter into your heart.  He will prove Himself to you.  He will give you undeniable evidence that He is alive and is desperate to have a relationship with you. 

Wouldn’t it be better to unlock the door and invite Him in?  He doesn’t have to wait for you to answer the door.  He could come in on His own.  He very well may do that someday…but I really think He would rather you open the door and let Him in.

Revelation 3.20 declares that Jesus is standing at the door and He is knocking.  Just remember this…the door handle is on the inside.

April 12, 2010   John 20.25

All of have been there.   We laid our head on the pillow on the uncomfortable bed in the “Doubt It Hotel”.  We have crossed paths with this wicked enemy called doubt.  Thomas spent some time there.  He didn’t see Jesus at His first appearance to the other disciples and to Mary.  Because Thomas didn’t have the same revelation – he missed believing against unbelief.  He went from being absent in the presence of the Lord to the next step of personal  spiritual conflict – the step of doubt. 

You have been there before.  Miss too much church, too much prayer time and too much devotion in the Word and we are taking the next step downward – into doubt.  We go from wrestling with spiritual habits that lead us away from congregational worship to full-blown doubt and suspicion.  Thomas found himself there.  He wondered if the others really did see Jesus.  Then all of a sudden – there He is.   Thomas is now faced with the reality of faith in action.   Thomas will either get on the same page or he will turn and go another direction.

I wonder what was going through the mind of Thomas when he finally was confronted with Jesus – alive and well on planet earth?  Jesus welcomes himself into the fellowship of the scared still – walks through closed doors and greets Thomas.  Thomas has already declared his unbelief and what it will tak to get him to believe.  Then it’s confrontation time. 

Don’t you know that God has a plan for your life?  When doubt, fear, unbelief and disillusionment crowd into our heart – God has something up His sleeve.  He will come through closed and locked doors if necessary to bring you to full faith.  Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”    There is no strong rebuke here for Thomas.   There is understanding.  Thomas and the others had just experienced a major crisis of faith.  It’s as though the Lord knew that Thomas was on the shy side of faith.  He wanted to prove Himself to Thomas.  Remember when Jesus specifically asked for Simon Peter?  Now he is specifically looking for Thomas.  He entered a room with locked doors.  Jesus loved Thomas and wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easy.  Jesus would confront Thomas only to draw him in. 

What about you?  Have you been to a place where you have second guessed God?  Maybe you didn’t get all the message.  Maybe there were some personal issues.  The bottom line is that Jesus showed up.  The Lord had Thomas on His mind.  He wanted Thomas to believe – not set up residency in the city of unbelief.  We need to understand that our failures should draw us closer to God – not further away from Him.  Thomas blew it.   He missed an opportunity for powerful fellowship.  He moved into doubt and unbelief.  Then Jesus as a loving Lord and Savior would – sought Thomas out.    Is He seeking you out for some reason?

April 11, 2010    John 20.24

Missed opportunities!  I can’t tell you the times that I have missed a sale by a few minutes, missed a great deal on a car by a few minutes (I always envied the guy who “Just got here probably five minutes before you!”) or missed  something spectacular at the event I was just too tired to attend.   It is what it is and sometimes it is frustrating to miss opportunities you may never get back. 

When it comes to worship services, a good friend of mine by the name of Ralph Sikes (international evangelist) once said, “If you miss the apex of a worship service you can never get it back.  You can’t clap it back, shout it back or sing it back.  It’s gone – never to be retrieved from even the bank of good intentions.”   

The first time Jesus appeared to His disciples – Thomas was not present.  He was somewhere doing something – but He wasn’t where he could have received one of the most powerful “God visuals” he could have ever received.   He missed the premier opportunity of seeing Jesus immediately after His resurrection.  Because Thomas missed that original and intentional appearing of Jesus – he remained in a place of doubt and confusion.  Too bad. 

He would get a second chance but the faith and revelation of who Jesus was had already taken place with the others.  Thomas would play catch up with his faith.  He was behind already.  He would have to put his fingers into the scars on the body of Jesus.  He would have ultimate proof that this was the real Messiah.   He would come in second on the issue of revelation knowledge. 

How many times have we missed being in the presence of Jesus and missed a blessing or missed being a blessing?  How many opportunities of personal prayer have we missed because we are just too busy to pray?  How many worship services have we missed being ministered just by failing to be in the presence of Jesus?  How many times have we let petty issues, sickness, weariness, being tired, exhausted and run ragged keep us out of church.  How many times have we missed a blessing by not being where the rest of the “group” or congregation was at.  Does God really bless gatherings over individual times with Him?  It’s obvious He does!  There are times that ordained group meetings take precedent over  individual times with God.  Thomas missed an opportunity to be blessed with the premier revelation of Christ after His resurrection….to a group.  Mary had her individual moment with Jesus.  He then instructed her and eventually other followers to go to Jerusalem and wait on the Promise of the Father.  Group settings where distinctive blessings flow.  How many times have you missed being in them?  

Over the next few weeks our Journey to Pentecost why not try to miss absolutely none of our scheduled services.  Be here and be with the group for a group blessing.  Be here and be with the group to enjoy His presence.   Let’s not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as we near the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 Hebrews 10:25

Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. 

April 10, 2010     John 20.19

Peace.   A five letter word that carries enough weight to stop a freight train on a dime!   How many times in nearly 30 years of ministry have I heard this word used in some form or another as either a personal desire, community desire and even at times – a congregational desire.  If you expand the reach of this word then you capture the near impossibility of reaching peace among nations.  Experts tell us since the beginning of time we have only had some four hundred years of peace – time without war in some corner of the world.

When Jesus encountered His followers after His resurrection He used this word multiple times.  Why?  Because Jesus as the creator of humanity to begin with – knew the importance of this word to each one of us.   Jesus often used this word to introduce healing, forgiveness, signs and wonders and miracles of a personal nature.  Peace.  During this fifty day journey maybe you can place yourself into that journey Jesus himself took from the tomb to His ascension.  Discover the look in His eye when He exclaimed peace to His listeners.  Catch the tone of His voice.  Sense His spirit.  Know that from the depth of His soul He attempted to speak into the lives of His listeners.   He spoke past the hidden places in the human intellect.  He spoke past the potential of His listeners to rationalize known facts and capture the heart of a person.  He spoke past fear, doubt and unbelief and drove in the hope of peace.  He spoke the reality of peace.   How did He manage to do this?  Because He is peace.  He is the epitome of peace.  He is peace personified.

Regardless of how you need peace expressed – Jesus is the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4.7).  From personal peace to family peace.  From marital peace to peace with your children.  From sibling peace to peace with your neighbors.  From business peace to peace with congregational members.  Jesus is the answer.  He is peace and His peace is manifested in your spirit man.  Trust me on this one.  I have seen the darkness of doubt, loneliness, betrayal, sin, conflict from within and without.  I have experienced the pain of emotionally pointed destruction.  I have heard the sound of being alone.  I have listened to Job’s counselors speak words that caused confusion instead of peace.   But in the middle of all the absence of peace Jesus somehow steps in as the Peace that passes understanding and rationalization.  How do we know it’s His peace?  When science can’t explain it and intellect can’t define it.  When you discover the peace that passes all understanding – then you know you have arrived.  As Kenneth Hagin Sr. used to say, “You just know it in your knower!”  You know it in your heart and no one needs to define it for you.

Jesus initiated peace to overcome the most difficult and disappointing times of our life.  During this journey – leave some things with Him.  He is the Peace Maker.  Cast all your care on Him because He really does care about you.

April 9, 2010     John 20.18 

The bridge between our personal faith experience with Christ and the courage to share it with someone else can be long.  For some people – its years long!  What do I mean by years long?   This bridge is measured in time – not feet.   When Mary first encountered Jesus at the tomb she was overcome with fear.  That fear didn’t last very long.  She immediately ran to tell others about her Jesus “encounter.”   For some of you who are reading this blog – it has been years….too many years. 

The foundation of our faith, the rock of our faith is our ability to share Christ with others.  It’s the dynamic that in far too many cases has crumbled and wasted away.  For too many believers they are attached to a tomb.  The tomb is empty because they really believe in Christ.  They have accepted Him as Savior.   But the empty tomb is where they have camped out.  They have never “ran away” to tell someone else about their experience. 

It’s funny when you think about it.  Our foundation of faith is our ability to share Jesus with others.  Jesus came, died and rose again to secure this testimony in the earth.  It was the motivation to His being here.   When He ascended to the Father He left the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the same thing.  This dynamic of testimony, of witnessing has not dimished with His ascension.  It has been enhanced.   We go from the tomb to Pentecost and the bottom line message is the same – share Jesus with others.  The journey to Pentecost only gives this dynamic more exposure to practical involvement.  We have no alternative.  The only reason Jesus came and gave His life for us was for us to tell others about Him.  The ultimate purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit was for us to tell others through a supernatural empowerment.    Let’s go for it.  Let’s prove the ultimate purpose of Pentecost as real and not fraudulent.  Let’s engage in what Mark 16 leaves us with. 

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. 

He will work with us!  We have to take the first step.  The operative here is that He “works” with us.  He doesn’t go out Himself.  He uses ordinary people like you and I.  That is…if we will let Him.