Beyond Pentecost: Praise, Pray, Present

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Welcome to A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and friends.

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We share good news and godly wisdom to empower you to be salt and light in every season of life.

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The First New Testament outpouring of Pentecost brought many people together through corporate worship,

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purification, dedication, and demonstration, as all the nations were gathered in Jerusalem at the same time.

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But now what? The Axe Church was set apart, sanctified, serving, and ascending Church.

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And we need to be the same Church today.

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Listen as Doug brings a powerful word of instruction and encouragement through this week's podcast.

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After the episode, consider leaving a review and follow us on your favorite streaming service.

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If you've cleaned anything from this podcast, consider paying it forward with a gift at somebodycares.org.

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Now let's join our host, Doug Stringer.

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Recently, many of us observed Pentecost weekend in the Jewish community, the Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks.

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And we also celebrated Memorial Day weekend.

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And we have already talked about the importance of the price that has been paid,

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in which we are the beneficiaries of liberties and freedoms.

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And of course, we see as Christians that 2,000 years ago, because of the work of the cross and the power of the resurrection,

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we can stand fast therefore in the liberty where Christ has set us free, as Paul speaks of in Galatians 5.1.

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But I also want to take a moment because in the midst of all the things that we can do to observe those kinds of weekends,

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in memory of, and we celebrate because of the price that was given to us,

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I want to look at practical principles that I believe can help us through challenging times and the spiritual battles that come in our lives.

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As I was reflecting a bit though on Pentecost as a Christian,

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and how we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2, where they were marveled and were amazed at what God did.

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But in the upper room there was 120 in one accord, worshiping the Lord, and the Holy Spirit came down in a powerful, unimaginable way,

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that had never been experienced before. And in one day, around 3,000 people came to the Lord and the Church was born.

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Now many of us recognize that the Christian celebration of Pentecost has its origins in Shavuot.

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And Shavuot was the festival of the weeks, of 49 days after Passover, and that time of year marks the start of the wheat harvest and the end of the barley harvest.

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It also marked the time that the Jews were given the Torah on Mount Sinai,

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when Moses went up onto the mountain and God gave Moses the law, the Torah, for the people.

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It is considered a highly important historical event.

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So we as Christians also rejoice at the original Pentecost, but also that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came in a fresh and new way,

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and that we celebrate it as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in which the Church was born.

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Now to the Jews, Shavuot, the feast of weeks in Pentecost, is a celebration of the giving of God's Torah and law.

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And it takes place 50 days after the Passover feast.

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Now when God gave the Israelites the law and the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, it was 50 days after they celebrated their first Passover and came out of slavery or the bondage of Egypt.

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But what happened after God gave them the law in the first Pentecost?

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While God was giving Moses the Torah, the tablets on the mountain, the people were making themselves a golden calf to worship.

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Because of their sin and rebellion, around 3,000 people died that day.

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Now contrast that with the Pentecost in the book of Acts.

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And the Holy Spirit filled the upper room, and in one day 3,000 people came to the Lord.

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It gives us a whole new meaning of 2 Corinthians 3,6 as a Christian, which says that the letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

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In Jesus' own words, he says that those who worship God must do so in spirit and in truth.

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Jesus didn't come to destroy the law, but in himself become the fulfillment of the law.

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He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him.

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So as believers, we need to be those who have a love for the truth, at the same time recognize that it's only the love of the truth that by the grace of God can we live through Christ himself.

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2 Corinthians 3,17 says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, or there is freedom.

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The power of the Holy Spirit and fire of God consumes the sacrifice on the altar.

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And if the fire of God consumed the sacrifice on the altar in Solomon's temple, and his glory filled that temple that was built with the hands of men,

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how much more does the fire of God want to consume those who offer themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God?

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Romans 12, verse 1 and 2.

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1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says that we no longer belong to ourselves.

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In fact, because we are now the temples of the Holy Spirit that were purchased by the blood of Christ.

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So how much more valuable are we that we're not built by the hands of men like Solomon's temple, but we were built wonderfully and beautifully built by the hands of God,

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that he beautifully and wonderfully made each and every one of us.

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He knew us by name before we were even our mother's womb.

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So as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices of our time, talent and resources on the altar of God,

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the Holy Spirit fire consumes us on the altar and the glory fills the temple.

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Solomon's temple was filled with the glory of God as Solomon had the sacrifice placed on the altar offered to God in Thanksgiving.

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The Holy Spirit of God came like a fire, consumed the sacrifice and the glory filled his temple.

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How much more valuable are we who God has beautifully and wonderfully made that when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices,

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holy and acceptable of our time, talent and resources,

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and that the fire of God consumed us, the sacrifice offered before the altar of God and his glory filled the temple.

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We are the temples of the Holy Spirit now.

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Can you imagine how powerful that is when we get a revelation of this?

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That if God consumed the sacrifice in Solomon's temple and the glory of God filled that temple,

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how much more valuable and important are we who God has handpicked,

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who beautifully and wonderfully made us and who now has purchased us with his very own life,

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his very own blood to be living temples or stewards of the temples of the Holy Spirit.

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That's a powerful, powerful place.

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The privilege of stewarding these temples that God has given us

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and to represent Christ in all that we do say, think,

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and to bring honor and glory to him in all that we do say and think.

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So when we consider the very first Passover of the deliverance from the world, the deliverance from Egypt,

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and 50 days later the giving of the Torah on the mountain in Mount Sinai to Moses and to the people,

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and yet the people rebelled and raised up on other gods before the Lord,

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rather than rejoicing and celebrating the God of their deliverance, the God of their salvation.

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And as a result, 3,000 people died.

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And yet we contrast that where we see 2,000 years ago

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in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Pentecost in Jerusalem,

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that as they were worshiping God in the upper room,

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3,000 people as a result of that outpouring on that Pentecost were added to the church.

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God is a God of the living.

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God wants to give life and life more abundantly.

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Acts chapter 2 verse 33 through 41.

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Again, talks about the importance when we repent and receive the Holy Spirit,

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we'll receive the promises of the Lord, and we will be saved from this perverse generation.

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And 3,000 were added in one day to the church.

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I bring that in contrast to where we are today in the context of where we live today.

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We are living in a perverse generation, and we need to be a people of repentance and humility

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to walk before a holy God so we can receive the outpouring of God's presence

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and receive the Holy Spirit in a fresh and new way, and receive the promises of God

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so that we can be saved from this present perverse generation.

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And we can see multitudes upon multitudes that are in the valley of decision added to the church.

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It is the time for the church to let our light so shine in such a way

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that others would see the living Christ in us,

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and that they too would find their hope, their liberty, their freedom, the grace of God

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to be delivered and to be healed and to be set free from this perverse generation.

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As I mentioned earlier, I know that we all go through challenging times

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and spiritual battles in our lives.

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And in fact, things are exasperated right now with such tension and pressure

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all around us and around the world.

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So we are all confronted with these challenges every day.

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Let me just share with you just a few practical principles I apply.

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Because I go through so many things as well, personally and corporately,

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and the stress of what I see.

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So what I do for me personally is one, I try to praise Him through the circumstance,

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praising the Lord through it.

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Whatever the circumstance, whatever external challenges or even internal conflicts or blessings

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that I might be going through, I have to in faith praise the Lord in the midst of it.

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We see this in scripture when the disciples are in prison.

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As they are praising the Lord, the prison doors open

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over and over again in scripture.

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We see those who in the midst of the most difficult of times

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place their sacrifice on the altar.

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We today are living sacrifices.

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As we place ourselves on the altar of God with our time, talent, resources and treasures,

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the Holy Spirit consumes our offering and His glory fills our temple.

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When worship goes up, His presence comes down

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and manifests in ways that bring breakthroughs

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that we can't even create on our own or even fathom on our own.

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You've read Ephesians 3.20 many, many times.

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Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly

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about what I can ask or think or imagine according to the power that works in us.

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It is praising the Lord and God is our master of breakthrough, our bell parizem.

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The second thing I do is I begin to pray.

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I pray in ways that I don't understand.

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Sometimes I don't even know what to pray.

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So I just go to my knees at that knee time before the Lord

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and I just begin to just ponder before Him.

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I begin to think out loud to Him.

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I begin just to express my adoration and my love.

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So I begin to pray in the Spirit and then I pray the word.

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The word of God never comes back void.

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The word is powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword.

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As we meditate on the word of God, it renews our minds and washes us.

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John chapter 1 says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God

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and the word was God.

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Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says, for the word of God is living and powerful

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and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division of soul and spirit

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and have joined Samarro and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

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Proverbs 30 verse 5 says, every word of God is pure.

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He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

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The late Dr. Edward Lewis Cole, the founder of the Christian Men's Network Globally,

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used to say, prayer produces intimacy with the one to whom you pray,

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with whom you pray, and for whom you pray.

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And Ed Savoso says, talk to God about your neighbors

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before you talk to your neighbors about God.

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Prayer brings us into intimacy with God in an agreement with those we are praying with

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and praying for.

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If we meditate on the power of God's word and pray it into our marriage, family,

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circumstances, into our community, the nation, and global crises,

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God is able to do a work that He can do that we can't do on our own.

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It's in these moments like this I just pray God's word over every situation and circumstance.

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I do believe we're in a critical season, and I believe it's important for us to be the

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Book of Acts Church again so the world can see the light of Christ in us and shining through us

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in the midst of difficult and troubling times.

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We must be a people with expectation in the Lord.

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We have the answers, and we find them in the word of God.

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So we pray the word because the word works.

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And then the Lord puts it in my heart to speak the word.

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The word zoe in Genesis in Revelation means the life of God.

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We have the life of God, the zoe life living in us,

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and through the living word Jesus, He can work in our lives and He works through our lives.

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We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and we have the authority to speak the za'o of God,

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or the breath of God, which also comes from the word zoe and za'o coming from the same root words.

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So we can speak the life of God, and we can also declare the breath of God into every situation.

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By speaking and declaring God's word, we invite the breath of God into every situation of our lives.

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Remember Hebrews 412.

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The word of God is living and powerful, and we need the power of God's word to

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pierce through every circumstance in our soul, our spirit, and in our lives.

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Isaiah 55 verse 10 and 11 says,

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For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven,

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And do not return there, but water the earth,

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And make it bring forth in bud, That it may give seed to the sower,

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And bread to the eater.

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So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth, says the Lord.

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It shall not return to me void, But it shall accomplish what I please,

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And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

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In fact, it says in Psalm 33 verse 4 through 6,

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For the word of the Lord is right, And all his work is done in truth.

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He loves righteousness and justice.

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The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

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By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

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And all the hosts to them by the breath of his mouth.

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There is something so powerful about speaking the word of God,

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Speaking his zoe life over our circumstances and our families.

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It does not return void, so we can have confidence in its effectiveness.

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It gives us hope and vision beyond our current circumstances,

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Or even the global shakeings that are going on all around us.

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And finally, we need to spread the word.

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We must also be those who spread the word in and through the way that we live.

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How can we spread the word if we don't have a relationship with the living word?

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How can we know God's heart unless we know his word?

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God's word teaches us the way we should live and the way we should go.

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In fact, God says in Psalm 32, 8,

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I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

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I will guide you with my eye.

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We need the manifest presence of God like never before.

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We need the renewing of our minds.

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We need to call upon the name of the Lord to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit.

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We need a renewed understanding of the work of the cross and the power of the resurrection.

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But it starts with us returning to the fundamentals,

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getting back into God's word, the word of God, with a posture of humility.

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Let it change us, then going out to be a tangible expression of the living word through us to all those around us.

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You see, the word does work.

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The word works.

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It does not come back void.

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It is our word in season.

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It is the word of life.

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Let us meditate on the word to cleanse our minds and pray the word, which is powerful.

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Let us speak the word over our lives and spread the word to be a tangible expression of God's love.

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With so much divisiveness and instability in our world,

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we need the Holy Scriptures, the plumb line of God's truth,

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to give us guidance, direction, and the answers we also desperately need.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends,

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and ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the ministry at SomebodyCares.org,

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or by texting your donation amount to 805-422-7348.

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Please join us again for A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and Friends.