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Fasting and Prayer

3/29/2020

As we continue our study on surrender and especially focus on the Holy Spirit; let's remember that He is a gift from our Lord and Savior Jesus, so He can live in us as we walk this life. This week I want to look at what the disciples were doing when they received guidance to witness.
"And when they fasted and prayed..." Acts13:2
These followers of Jesus were fasting and praying and the Holy Spirit came and spoke to them. God had already extended His Church to Antioch and had given rich blessings to the Early Church. Now we find them serving Jesus with prayer and fasting. They are convicted that they can not do it on their own. That they must have the Holy Spirits leading every step of the way! Andrew Murray in his book Absolute Surrender puts it this way,
"What a deep conviction they have - "It must all come direct from Heaven. We are in fellowship with the risen Lord; we must have a close union with Him, and somehow He will let us know what He wants." And they were, empty, ignorant, helpless, glad and joyful, but deeply humbled. "O Lord," they seem to say, "we are Thy servants, and in fasting and prayer we wait upon Thee. What is Thy will for us?" Absolute Surrender page 41
We see the same reaction from Peter! He is on the housetop fasting and praying and God sent the vision to go to Caesarea. He didn't know what to do; he was just waiting to see what direction God was leading, but he was fasting and praying as he waited.
You see friends, it is when our hearts are completely and entirely surrendered to Jesus; when we are separating ourselves from the the things of this world and in intense prayer seeking Jesus that God will reveal His will to us.
It is when we are willing to go into our closets and shut out the business and televisions and technology, anything that can distract and get alone with God. These disciples in Acts went even deeper and shut themselves away from the material things like food and fasted! They wanted so bad to let go of anything that would distract them from intensely seeking their Lord; anything that would separate them from Jesus that they wouldn't even eat. That's how much they desired God's will through the Holy Spirit!
I encourage you and me to truly seek the will of God in our lives and in our Church. To allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with Jesus and then send us out to reach a world that needs Jesus just as much as we do.
Have a wonderful week and remember to pray with someone else in our Church for revival and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit!

God's Direction Though the Holy Spirit

3/23/2020

Last week we began our study on the Holy Spirit's role in our surrender. We saw how we must allow the Holy Spirit to direct our plans and it is our privilege and duty as children of the King to wait for Him to show us His plan.
This week we are going to discover how God is willing and able to reveal to us His will for our lives and our walk with Jesus. In fact, we should be shouting hallelujah that we still today can receive clear direction from the Holy Spirit and never have to be wandering without purpose and direction.
The Holy Spirit will still speak to His Church and His people if we are willing to listen. So I ask you today, and I ask myself: Lord, are we ready and willing to wait for You to show us your will? Are we safe? Can You trust us with Your power and Your grace?
You see, God can only reveal His will to a heart that is humble and tender and empty! God can only open doors and give understanding for difficulties and great problems to a heart that has learned to trust Him in the little things in daily life.
Friends, we must realize and understand that hearing The Holy Spirit and being led by God always comes back to Jesus!
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20
True surrender is being crucified with Jesus every morning and continually throughout the day and allowing Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit and live His life in us!

The Holy Spirits Role in Our Surrender

3/8/2020

I would like to take a few weeks and discover the Holy Spirit's role in our surrender and walk with Jesus.
We will start our study in Acts 13:1-4
"Now at the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus."
In this story we find some wonderful direction as to what God has for us, and what God wants to do for us through the Holy Spirit. First: the Holy Spirit is our director of the work God has for us to do here on earth, and especially in our lives and in our church. Second: if we are going to have true success, and truly do the work of Jesus. We must be in a right relation to the Holy Spirit and daily give Him the place and honor that belongs to Him.
This is something we can and must do! Just like our relationship with the Father, and with Jesus our Savior; we must in our inner private life and worship, give the Holy Spirit complete and absolute surrender. Like our Father God and Jesus we must daily ask Him to come into our lives and have top billing! Let's take just a few moments to look at our text again and see what other direction we can find.
We see that God has His own plan for His Kingdom! Asia and Europe were His. He had conceived them; they were His, and He made them known to His servants in the early church. This is a lesson we must learn. It is our great Commander who organizes and instructs every campaign, and often we plan and move ahead of God the Holy Spirit when we should be waiting for His orders. It is our privilege to wait on God through the Holy Spirit to give us our orders! Our small part is to spend the time with our Lord every day, and every moment, so we don't miss His instructions.
In our text we saw the early church was worshipping God and fasting; then they herd the Holy Spirit directing them.
Some years ago in Wellington, South Africa, a Christian group under the direction of Andrew Murray opened a Mission Institute. It was a fine large building - at it's opening the principle said this,
"Last year we gathered here to lay the foundation-stone, and what was there to be seen? Nothing but rubbish, and stones, and bricks, and ruins of an old building that had been pulled down. There we laid the foundation-stone, and very few knew the building that was to rise. No one knew it perfectly in every detail except one man, the architect. In his mind it was all clear, and as the contractor and the mason and the carpenter came to their work they took their orders from him, and the humblest laborer had to be obedient to orders, and the structure rose, and this beautiful building has been completed. And just so," he added, "this building that we open today is but laying the foundation of a work of which only God knows what is to become."
Friends, God the Father has his plan clearly mapped out. It is our part to wait for His instruction. He will give us as much as we need at the time. As much as we need each day! Our part is to listen, and to faithfully carry out His commands when He gives the word through His Holy Spirit.

Love Inspire Our Prayer for Each Other

2/25/2020

For the last few months we have been considering surrender and especially focusing on how surrender to Jesus impacts how we love God and each other. And like every other aspect of our walk with Jesus; only love can prepare us for the ministry of prayer!
We have already discovered that it is only love that can fit us for our walk and work with Jesus. Do you know what is the most challenging and most important work we can do for each other, and for a sin sick world? It is the work of praying for each other! Going to God; and taking the time and effort to lay hold of Jesus!
Friends, we may be earnest Christians, our main goal in life to minister to others. But unless we learn what it means to tarry with God; unless we truly learn what it means to have a spirit to pray for each other, we have not yet grasped the greatest and most important work of being a disciple of Jesus. It is my prayer that not one of us will let a day pass that we do not pray for each other! And this is not just talking about Christian friends and beloved family. God ask us to pray for our enemies! To beg for the souls of those that hate us and want only our hurt! I encourage you today to pray for each other!
It is truly important to pray for ourselves; to spend that thoughtful hour everyday on the life of Jesus. But I assure you it is equally important to our church and to our personal walk with Jesus to pray for all believers! I encourage you to pray for all believers!
It is vitally important to pray for those that do not know anything of God. We must pray for our government and world leaders! We must pray for missionaries and the work of God all over the World. But I find it interesting that Paul the great missionary to the Gentiles did not tell us to pray for the heathen or the unconverted only. His command was to pray for believers! Make this your first prayer everyday; after your praise time to God, make your first prayer; "Lord, bless Your saints everywhere."
The church needs our prayers! Every single person needs our prayers! I know I personally crave and covet everyone of your prayers! We must plead for God's people that they will find Jesus and make Him their only hope and the great guide of their life. We must plead for those that are trying to work for God. Pray that love will fill our hearts; that Jesus will pour it afresh into our hearts every single day. We must ask the Holy Spirit to use us to be intercessors for our church and for each other. The fruit of the Spirit is love! Lord help us to truly understand this and surrender our love completely to You!
It is my desire to surrender my life completely and continually to Jesus. Let's pray everyday for each other!
I love you!
Brad

Christian Work Requires Love

2/17/2020

We have been discussing love and how it relates to our surrender to Jesus for several weeks now, and could easily spend a year just on this subject without exhausting it. Just a couple more weeks and we will look at other aspects of surrender, but today I would like to look at how Christian Work Requires Love.
Let's begin with the question, why is love so important in our work to share Jesus to a sin sick world? And the answer is: That is the only power in which we as Christians can possibly do our work. If we do not have divine love to bind us together and to draw us to the lost around us we are merely involved in a form of philanthropy that we see in the lives of atheist and agnostic's who have a natural spirit of compassion for their fellow-men. Is it possible that we sometimes take on Christian work just because our pastor or another member has a vision for reaching souls, but we do it just out of duty or to please that person, but don't have that baptism of love in our own heart?
Now that kind of work and devotion is certainly better than nothing at all, but the results will fall far short of what can happen when we have the fire of everlasting love that we see in Jesus and God the Father at Calvary.
That is the baptism of love that will give us as a Church the same results that Jesus experienced. The same results that His disciples experienced in the early Church. The only way that we too can experience this love and sacrifice is if we get down on our faces in confession and pray to God:
"Lord, let love from Heaven flow down into my heart. I am giving up my life to pray and live as one who has given himself up for the everlasting love to dwell in and fill him." Absolute Surrender page 32.
Friends, if the love of Jesus were in our hearts as God wants to put it through the Holy Spirit, what a difference it would make! How often have I heard devoted Christians say, "I would love to do more; I really would, but it's just not my gift! How often have I felt that way myself if I'm honest? Sometimes we just throw up our hands and say, "I don't know where to begin. Lord, I just don't know what to do?"
Our part in this is to ask God to fill us with the Spirit of Love, and that love will change everything! Love truly covers a multitude of sins! Love is the one thing that can cover our mistakes and weaknesses in our work with people.
I heard the story of a woman who was asked to speak at a mission where there were a number of poor women suffering with addictions and beat up by life. As she was preparing to speak she noticed a pitiful women outside that didn't even seem to have the desire to come in out of the cold. The speaker asked; "who is that?" The matron answered; "She has been here thirty or forty times and she always goes right back to the streets. Nothing can be done with her, she is a hard case." But the speaker said; "She must come in." The matron then said; "Its almost time to start and we only have an hour for your address."
The speaker then replied; "No, this is more important"; and she went outside where the woman was sitting and said; "My sister, what is the matter?" "I'm not your sister," was the reply. Then the speaker laid her hand on the woman, and said; "Yes, I am your sister, and I love you"; and so she spoke until the heart of the poor woman was touched. Finally the speaker brought the woman inside. She was embarrassed! She wouldn't even sit in a chair, but sat down on a stool beside the speakers seat and leaned against her. The speaker wrapped her arms around this woman as she spoke to the people. And that love touched the woman's heart; she had found someone that really loved her, and that love gave access to the love of Jesus.
I praise God for the love in your hearts! But how much more does God want to give us? How much greater of an impact can we have in our homes, communities and churches if we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us more fully with the love of Jesus?
I love you!
Brad

Our Love Shows God's Power

2/2/2020

We have been discussing the last several weeks that "The fruit of the Spirit is love." Why is this so important for you and me to not only understand, but to make part of our life? It is because, the Spirit of God has come to make our lives a daily exhibition of Jesus power and to show the world what the love of Jesus can do for His children.

In chapters two and four of Acts we read that the disciples were of one heart and of one soul. But when we look back at the three years they walked with Jesus; that was not their spirit at all! They were showered in Jesus teachings for three years and yet that did not make them of one heart and one soul. But when the Holy Spirit came from Heaven and filled their hearts with the love of Jesus, they were of one heart and one soul.

Friends, that same Holy Spirit that brought the love of Heaven to the early disciples, longs to fill our hearts with that same love and unity. Literally nothing else will do that! We can listen to the best sermons and read the best teachings of love possible; as the disciples did. But that will not teach us to love unless the power of the Holy Spirit fills our lives and brings the love of Heaven into our hearts.

When we think of the church as a whole, we see so many divisions! And honestly, differences of opinion do not bother me in the least. It is a blessing that we have different temperaments and minds. The danger is that we allow hatred, bitterness, contempt and meanness to rear its ugly head over truths in God's word. On occasion we get caught up in what we think is right and it becomes more important than love. There is the danger that while we feel justified because we believe we are standing up for righteousness; we forget God's command to always speak the truth in love. We saw this during the Reformation between two great men of God in Luther and Calvin. They were mean and un-Christlike over the communion of all things! It was meant to be a bond of unity among believers and caused separation and division. All to often as Christians we allow dear and precious truths that are supposed to unify us to become mountains that separate us.

If we want to have great power in prayer. And if we want to have the Holy Spirit transforming our lives by Jesus living His life in us; then we must enter into a covenant with Jesus to fill us with love for one another.

Are you ready for that? Only the love that wants the very best for those that are hard to love and puts our enemies before ourselves is the love of Jesus. And friends, this love comes only from absolute surrender to God!

That absolute surrender is what allows the Holy Spirit to do His work in our lives. Unfortunately we have often degraded the Holy Spirit into a mere power to help us in our work! May God forgive us! I pray the Holy Spirit for you and me will be a power to fill us with the very life and nature of Jesus!

If you took the Gospel Challenge for 2020 and you started in Matthew you should be reading the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitude today. If you have the time I encourage you to read chapter 31 in the Desire of Ages as well. And remember that we are reading these chapters with the simple desire to get to know Jesus as a friend!

I love you!
Brad

God's Gift of Love

1/26/2020

God's love is truly a gift! If it were not a gift and we could muster up or work hard to attain love; then this wouldn't be a big deal. But we have no hope of gaining true love and living it in our daily life unless God gives it to us as a gift. So it is a big deal!
When we talk about our walk with Jesus; often we speak of temper. And you may be saying temper is no big deal; your making too much out of it. I don't think we can make too much of it. It is like a clock. If the hands are not moving, or pointing the wrong way; we immediately know that something in the clock is not working properly. Temper is just like that! Temper is proof whether the love of Jesus fills our heart. Now, we may be able to keep a smile on our face and be sweet at church and prayer meeting. But what about when your wife or husband pushes those buttons that are so...annoying? Or you trip over your kids bike that they left in the walk way; and you fall and scrap your shin? If we treat our loved ones with less love and respect then we do those at church, or strangers at the grocery store; then we can shout hallelujah that God has prepared for you and me a wonderful redemption in Jesus! He longs to fill our lives with the supernatural! Are we longing for it? Are we asking for it? Are we expecting it? Jesus has promised He will give it to us through Him living in us; "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20
Then we have the tongue! We live in a country that gives us freedom of speech. We pride ourselves on speaking our mind, because it is our right!
But if we have been crucified with Jesus. If He is living within us as He has offered to do; then let us every day pray the prayer; "Lord shut my mouth unless I speak in tender love." How often when we are at work, at church, or at home, do we find ourselves criticizing, judging, and speaking unloving and unkind words about another child of God?
Friends, it must be in our daily life; how we treat those that hate us, or those that will love us anyway; that the fruit of the Spirit is love! It is our privilege as Christians to prove our love for Jesus; and show our families, friends and the world what a life looks like when we have been crucified with Jesus and He is living in our life! Because Jesus is the gift! Him living His life in and through us!
I love you!
Brad

Mankind Needs Love

1/18/2020

We have been discussing love, and God is Love. This week I would like to consider how and why Mankind Needs Love.
In fact, love is our one great need! That was the very thing that Jesus came to accomplish: to restore love to this sin sick world. To restore love to me and you! And when man sinned, why was it that he sinned? He sought self instead of God. That is the simple truth! It always comes back to self, doesn’t it? Adam at once blames Eve for his sin. Just that quick sin destroys the love in their hearts. And then we see in just a few short years Cain murders his brother Able. Again and again since then we have seen how sin has robbed the world of love. Now, we do see glimpses of love shine through even after all the damage. But one of the worst things sin did to mankind was to make us selfish. Because, selfishness cannot love. Wherever we see self poke up it’s ugly head, true love is destroyed. Thankfully Jesus came down from heaven to show us what true love from the Father looks like. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Jesus came to show us what love really is, and lived a life of love here upon this dark world. He showed us true compassion even to His enemies, and died for a world that really just wanted it to be all about them. Jesus Spirit of love came to banish selfishness and envy, pride and self promotion, and says, “I will give you the abundant life. I will put in your hearts the Spirit of love.”
The book that I am using as an outline for this study, Absolute Surrender puts it this way,
“And what was the preparation for the promise of the Holy Spirit? You know that promise as found in the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. But remember what precedes in the thirteenth chapter. Before Christ promised the Holy Spirit, He have a new commandment, and about that new commandment He said wonderful things. One thing was: “Even as I have loved you, so Love ye one another.” To them His dying love was to be the only law of their conduct and intercourse with each other. What a message to those fisherman, to those men full of pride and selfishness! “Learn to love each other,” said Christ, “as I have loved you.” And by the grace of God they did it. When Pentecost came, they were of one heart and one soul. Christ did it for them.” Page 24
Friends, my only hope is if Jesus does it for me! Jesus has called us to dwell and walk in love. He tells us that if a man hates you, love them anyway! True love from Jesus cannot be conquered by anything or anybody. The more someone hates us the more love triumphs through it all and the more we show off Jesus to the world. This is the love that Jesus asked His disciples and us to show to a sin sick world.
It was Jesus who said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Jesus is telling us, “I give you a badge, and that badge is Love.” The only way that people will truly see Jesus, is that we wear this badge of love.
Friends, let’s ask Jesus to do this for us to completely surrender ourselves to Him, so He can give us this badge of love.
I love you!
Brad

God is Love

1/11/2020

Last week we looked at how the Fruit of the Spirit is Love in relation to our surrender. And so, why is the Fruit of the Spirit love? It is because God is Love! So, what does that really mean?
Well, one of the many things that we know about our wonderful God is that He loves to communicate with us. He loves to let us know how much He loves us. And He wants nothing but the very best for each and everyone of us. You see, God has no selfishness, He keeps nothing to Himself. God’s very nature is to always be giving. Literally everything God does is for the good of His creation. It is because God is Love! Even though He is the God of the universe He keeps nothing for Himself, because He delights to pour out His love on us. His love is so great that He sent us His Son who He had spent eternity past with so He would not lose us! That thought makes me want to yell Hallelujah! My God is awesome! Don’t you feel that way?
One of the old church fathers said it this way, “We cannot better understand the Trinity than as a revelation of divine love — the Father, the Loving One, the Fountain of Love; the Son, the Beloved One, the Reservoir of Love, in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit, the living love united both and then overflowed into this world. The Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son is love. And when the Holy Spirit comes to us and to other men, will He be less a Spirit of Love than He is in God? It cannot be; He cannot change His nature. The Spirit of God is Love, and the Fruit of the Spirit is Love.”
When we get even a glimpse of our wonderful, awesome God how can we not give Him our absolute surrender.
I love you!
Brad

The Fruit of the Spirit is Love!

1/1/2020

As we continue to look at what it means to Walk With Jesus and Surrender ourselves completely, we will especially focus on how love influences our surrender. Today I would like to consider how The Fruit of the Spirit is Love! And how a life filled with the Holy Spirit will show itself in our daily Christian walk.
In the Old Testament we find the Holy Spirit often came upon people as a divine Spirit to show them the will of God, or to accomplish God’s will, but He didn’t dwell in them. I can’t help but wonder as I consider my own life, and your lives, if we wouldn’t prefer that Old Testament version of the Holy Spirit over the New Testament gift of the indwelling Spirit that animates and renews the whole life. You see when God gives the Holy Spirit, His great desire is to create in each of us a Holy character. He offers a Holy mind and an unselfish, loving spiritual disposition. Andrew Murray makes this short statement in his book Absolute Surrender,
“I must have the Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am really to live for God’s glory.” Page 19
As we look back at the disciples, and Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit, we see Him giving them this gift to be witnesses, and then they received the Holy Spirit in such power that He took possession of their lives, and they became Holy men and women in every aspect of their lives. It was the filling of the Spirit in them that caused people to call them Christians. The Holy Spirit filled them with such love that everyone saw it. It gave their lives power that turned the world on end.
Galatians 5:22 tells us, “The Fruit of the Spirit is Love.”
We read that “Love is the fulfilling of the law” and we need to ask ourselves, has this been our daily habit to seek being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Love? Has it been our experience that we are becoming more and more loving every day because the Spirit is dwelling in our life? This should be our greatest expectation in our walk with Jesus, that the Holy Spirit come into our lives as a Spirit of Love. I pray that I can get hold of this simple truth that the Fruit of the Spirit is Love, and that love takes possession of our lives when we are filled with this Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to every one of us.
God can and will bless our Wrangell Church beyond belief when we are filled with this love. It is when we as a body pull together that we are strong. In the time of the great religious wars when Holland stood up so nobly against Spain, one of their mottoes was: “Unity gives strength.”
Andrew Murray makes an observation on this very thing,
“It is only when God’s people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in love that the world can see—it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God.” Absolute Surrender page 21
It’s like a pitcher of water, if you crack it into pieces it can’t be filled. You might be able to take a little piece of it and dip out a little water, but if you want the pitcher full it has to be whole. This is true of Christ Church as well. I ask you to pray with me that we will allow Jesus to melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit as He did at Pentecost, when He made the disciples of one heart in the Spirit of love. “The Fruit of the Spirit is Love.” As we surrender ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will come and teach us how to love more and more.
I love you!
Brad

Pastor Brad

Pastor Brad Traxler is the pastor of the Wrangell SDA Church. Brad Traxler is the husband of forty years to Cheryl, father to Kimberly and Ryan, and grandfather to Brad, Kevin, William, Eamon, Zairhen, Seraphina, and Zeelyah. He holds a BA in Theology and has been pastoring churches for twenty years. The greatest passion of His life has been to share Jesus.

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