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Spirit-Confidence not self-confidence – Trickle Effect, 04SEP

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him” Jeremiah 17:7

So chapter 2 of the Book of Acts tells of Peter preaching and converting 3000 people all at once.  I actually prayed that EXACT thing when I awakened. I stood at our local 911 memorial knowing that in 2 months I had gone from disbelief in Jesus to 100% believing… and I held the 911 steel, representing 3000 people who died, and prayerfully were saved by God, and I asked the Lord: “Can I possibly preach like Peter to convince 3000 people to follow Jesus? Can I?”

I asked – then I backtracked in fear and lack of self-confidence… Did I ask too ambitiously? I don’t know…  I don’t know how, when, and if I could do that…. None of this is for me to know… I know I could talk to 3000 people – that is not out of my self-confidence – but would I be given the opportunity to reach 3000 all at once or maybe a few at a time?… ONLY GOD KNOWS…

Maybe I have the opportunity but it is up to me to seize it.

We are all on God’s strengthening “steering committee”…  it’s God’s Spirit not ours anyway – but it’s our navigation to use our skills to mature His Kingdom at the same time we are maturing ourselves…

Truth – we don’t need self-confidence, we NEED SPIRIT-CONFIDENCE !!!

What I do know is that the Lord turns around INDIVIDUAL HEARTS, one at a time… A TRICKLE EFFECT… the Holy Spirit seeping in… Singular faith conversations between two people will have Jesus present and the Holy Spirit is simply waiting to permeate the conversation. We have to invite the Holy Spirit to use us to speak for furthering His greater plan.

Sometimes Jesus comes in floods (like for me) but ALWAYS He flows… He knows the Way…

We need to let the Living Water keep seeping into our own lives…. Let us all want to be dripping wet with faith….

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Trickle Effect, 05SEP2015 – #257 edited https://debbieupper.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/email-with-professor-about-trickle-effect-05sep-257/

It interests me how Jesus truly didn’t want to be considered a sideshow attraction… He wanted people to dig deep within themselves, He wanted individual conversions…. And even though miracles also worked to convince folks, in the retelling of the events,  Jesus’s intent in miracles was simply showing MERCY not magic – simple kindness to deserving believers who were in bad straights…. He could have done flamboyant pre-advertised miracles with grandeur, but He didn’t… It was all about the faith of the person asking for mercy. Jesus said it’s our faith that changes lives – our lives – others too…

Thinking about our modern avenues of trying to spread the Gospel to the masses, we wonder: “What is the best way to reach people?”  God could have waited and sent Jesus in our day and age, when mass media would have spread (or squashed) His message like wildfire… But He didn’t…

God choose a trickle effect of spreading the Good News…

Some try a big scale approach. Some present directed philosophical pinpoints of information… Think of the debate people had with free education when it started, questioning if it is better to water down education for the masses, for more to understand at the same time? or keep education at high level for only a few?… I think with faith, God wants the trickle effect – big and small….  Yes, even at mega churches there is the trickle effect – it might be the person sitting next to you, with whom you can discuss the message’s meaning, where conversations about Jesus occur, and wheels start turning – where God becomes REAL to you.

The Way knows the Way to connect… the Holy Spirit in action…

God wants us to come to Him – one by one – by our own realization that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life!

AMEN

Stay tuned… The Way has a Way with Winning the Wayward…

From Mark 7:36-37  Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.  People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

From John 14:10-12, 27 (NIV)

“… The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these…”

“…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

From Acts 2: 14-

Peter Addresses the Crowd

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:

“‘I saw the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said: “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

The Fellowship of the Believers

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.