"To the thirsty I will give water without price from the foundation of the water of life..." -Revelation 21:6

This promise is for you, for you who want something more
For you who know that you have a thirst
     that has not yet been satisfied
For you who have heard of a water that refreshes as beyond compare
For you who feel burdened, who feel that you have reached the depths and want to rise
For you who are on top of the world, but who know that all the world does not have enough
For you who are full of fears and anxieties, for you who feel hardened and closed
For you who are full of eagerness and enthusiasm, for you who want all a human being can have
For all men, there is a promise, a promise made by your God, by the one who made you.
Perhaps you know him and have wondered if there should not be more. Perhaps you have only dimly heard of him
    and wish you could find him.
Now he speaks to you. Now he offers you a promise, a free gift, a new life - without price. He offers it to you freely, just as he created you freely, because he loves you.

"Let him who is thirsty come; let him who desires take the water of life without price." -Revelation 22:17 
 


Prayer

Prayer is simply present with God. Our prayer can take a variety of forms: praising and worshiping him for his own sake; thanking him for what he has done for us; asking him to do things for us or for others; listening to him speak to us. Sometimes it is simply being quiet before him, silent in his presence.

Prayer will grow in you. At first, if it is new to you, it may go slowly. But as you come to know God more fully and experience his love, your desire to pray will increase. After you have been baptized in the Spirit, you will be able to pray still more freely. God wants you to pray because he loves you and want you to be with him. He wants to give you the gift of prayer.

Study

True wisdom and understanding are gifts from God. God himself wants to teach you. If you read the Scriptures, and if you think about what they say, asking the Lord to teach you, you will be given spiritual understanding.

"We have never failed to pray for you, and what we ask God is that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you shall reach the fullest knowledge of his will. So you will be able to lead the kind of life which the Lord expects of you, a life acceptable to him in all its aspects: showing the results in all good actions you do and increasing your knowledge of God. You will have in you the strength, based on his own glorious power, never to give in, but to bear anything joyfully, thanking the Father who has made it possible for you to join the saints with them to inherit the light." - Col 1:9-12
 



GOD'S LOVE

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

Words of Life

*** God is not someone who lives away in a place you can never reach. Nor is he a heavenly warden, eager to punish you from doing wrong. He is a father who loves you. He says to you:


"I have loved you with an everlasting love, so I am constant in my affection for you." - Jeremiah 31:3

***You can know God and know how much he loves you. He wants to be in a personal relationship with you. He wants you to be his son or daughter. He does not want there to be any barrier or distance between you and him. He promised through the prophet Jeremiah:


"I will be their God and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for neighbor to try to teach neighbor, or brother to say to brother, 'Learn to know the Lord!' No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest - it is the Lord who speaks - since I will forgive their iniquity and never call their sin to mind." - Jeremiah 31:33-34

This word of life is a promise, an offer from God. As soon as you feel that you want to take the Lord up on what He is offering in these words of life and receive what He is promising.

***He loves you. God the Creator of the universe, the one who made all things out of nothing, loves you. He wants to care for you and give you a better life. He promised:

"I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where to rest - it is the Lord God who speaks. I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall watch over the healthy and the strong. I shall be a true shepherd to them.' -Ezekiel 34:14-16

***Because He loves us, God sent His only Son to save us. He sent Jesus so that we might have life, a better life now, a life that will last eternally.

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." -John 3:16

***God loves you. He is speaking to you now, reaching out to you. He is saying to you:

"Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty: though you have no money, come!
Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.
Pay attention, come to me, listen, and your soul will live. With you I will make an everlasting covenant
because of my sure, steadfast love." - Isaiah 55:1-3


***If you wish to know God, if you wish to have the life He offers, you can. Just turn to him and reach out to him. He invites you:

"I know the plans I have for you - it is the Lord who speaks - plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you. When you call to me, and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. When you seek me, you shall find me/." - Jeremiah 29:11-13

***Sometimes God seems so far away. Sometimes it seems like we can never reach Him. But He is not far away. He is very close to you, and right now He is trying to show Himself to you in a fuller way than ever before. He promises:

"The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth." -Psalm 145:18

  GOD'S COVENANT

We can know that God is willing to have a personal relationship with us and to give us a new life only because He has told us so. He made many promises to us, and we can rely on the promises of God. He has all power in heaven and on earth, and He does not lie. He can do what He ways and He will. But He will not force these things on us. We have to claim what He is offering. We have to believe what He says and receive from Him what He wants to give.


Many of the "Words of Life" above are promises. We can claim these promises and hold God to them. We can base our lives upon them.

Your Covenant

God's gift of new life with Him is free, absolutely free. We cannot earn it or deserve it in any way. Yet, we have to receive what He is offering. We have come to Him and reach out to Him.

A covenant is an agreement. When we enter into a covenant with someone, we make an agreement with them. We can enter into a covenant with God because He has already offered a covenant to us. If you made us promises that we can accept and claim. If you make a covenant with God now for the period of seven weeks, you will find that you will have a new life with God at the end of that time.

God promises in the Words of life above that if we turn to Him and reach out for what He has to offer, He will give it to us. The covenant you should make with God is simply a covenant to turn to Him, to listen to Him, and to let other Christians help you.

Perhaps you already know God and have experienced His love. Perhaps what you are looking for is a deeper relationship with Him, a fullness of life in His spirit. If you enter into a covenant with Him now in the same way and agree to seek from Him what He is offering, He will give you that deeper life with Him. You should agree to do those things which will allow God to give you the gift he has for you.

If you fail...

Remember that God loves you and wants you to be with him even more than you want him. He is not legalistic with us, if something happens so that we cannot fulfill our covenant one day, he will not hold it against us. If we neglect what we have promised, we can ask his forgiveness, and he will forgive us. He loves us and does not want anything to be a barrier between us and him. Of course, if we make a covenant with him, we should only do it because we want to and because we intend to fulfill our part of it. A covenant is a way of entering into a relationship of committed love with God.



SALVATION

"I have not said, 'Seek me in vain.'"

"He has take us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins." Cor. 1:13-14

Words of Life

***We find ourselves in a world that has something seriously wrong with it. Daily we read about wars, murders, poverty, racial conflict, exploitation. Daily we see in others and in ourselves loneliness, depression, anxiety, boredom, suspicion, mistrust, quarreling, hatred. Yet God did not create the world to be this way, nor does he want it to be this way. He promised:

In the days to come the peoples will stream to the temple of the Lord, nations without number will come to it; and they will say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord so that he may teach us His ways and we may walk in His paths...' He will wield authority over many peoples and arbitrate for mighty nations; they will hammer their swords into plowshares, their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war. That day - it is the Lord who speaks - I will finally gather in the lame, and bring together those that have been led astray." - Mic 4:1-6

***Many men offer to us plans for making the world a better place. Better education, more technical skills, new political programs, sociological wisdom, drugs, are all offered as solutions. Man-made religions (Buddhism, Bahai, Zen, yoga, and many others) are presented to us as the hope of the world. Some even tell us that a Christian moral code without Christ is the solution. But all these are human thoughts, man-made plans, The Lord says,

"Yes, the heavens are as high above the earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts." 9 Isa 55:9 

***We need more than human ideas and human power. We need the wisdom and power of God. We are facing a power that is greater than human power. Behind the world's evils is and evil intelligence, a kingdom of evil spirits, something greater than we are. Each of us has sensed what Paul tells us:

"For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens." 0 Eph 6:12 

***God's answer to the world's need is Jesus Christ. Jesus was sent into the world to save us, to free us from the power of Satan and of the world, so that we might live a new life now and forevermore

"Martha said to Jesus, 'If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now whatever you ask of God, He will grant you. Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even if he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you  believe this?' 'Yes,' she said, 'I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.'" -Jn 11:21-27 

***Our freedom costs something. Jesus had to die so that we might live. But God loved us enough to send His Son, who willingly died for us. As Paul says:

"It is not easy to die even for a good man - though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die - but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners." -Rom 5:6-8 

***Jesus dies and rose from the dead so that we might have new life. If he had not died, if he had not undergone the sufferings he did, we could not have been freed from sin and from the power of Satan. The prophet Isaiah spoke of Christ:

"Ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. He was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the Lord burdened him with the sins of all us." -Isaiah 53:4-6 

***When Jesus rose from the dead, he had defeated the power of Satan. Now he can free you from the power of darkness and the hold of Satan's kingdom. He can give you a whole new life, if you are willing to leave the old

"He has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins." - Col 1:13-14 
 



THE NEW LIFE

"I came so that they may have life and have it in abundance." - John 10:10 

Words of Life


***Throughout the ages prophets predicted that that the day would come when God would give His Spirit freely to men. Those who turned to Him and received His Spirit would be changed. They would be new men with a new life.

"The Lord God says this, 'I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed. I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you. I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you. You shall be my people and I will be your God." - Ezek 36:22-28 

***Jesus promised before he died that he would give his followers the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will live in you and give you a new life. The promise of Jesus is for everyone. Jesus says:

"If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows Him; but you know Him, because He is with you, I will not leave you orphans." - John 14:14-18 

***On the day of Pentecost, Jesus' disciples were gathered together in one room in prayer and the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised came on them. From that moment on, they were changed men.

"When Pentecost day came round, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech." - Acts 2:1-4 

***You can experience the Holy Spirit the same way the first disciples did. Whether you have been a Christian for a while or have never believed in Christ before, you can receive whatever is missing in your experience of the life of the Spirit. What happened to the disciples at Ephesus can happen to you:

"When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the moment Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them, they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy. There were about twelve of these men." - Acts 19:5-7 

***When the Holy Spirit is released in you, you will begin to experience a new kind of life. You will know God in a new way. That new life will grow in you until you become a changed person. Paul describes the result by saying:

" The fruit of the Spirit is love,joy, peace,patience,kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." - Gal 5:22-23 

***As you grow in faith in the Holy Spirit in you, you will begin to experience him working in you in new ways so that you can serve others. He will equip you with spiritual gifts, gifts which will give you a new power to do his work. Paul talks about some of these gifts in this way.

"The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose. One way have the word of wisdom given him by the Spirit, another may have the word of knowledge given him by the same Spirit, and another the gift of faith given by the same Spirit, another again the gift of healing through this one Spirit, one, the power of miracles, another, prophecy, another the gift of discerning spirits, another the gift of tongues and another the ability to interpret them. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who distributes the different gifts to different people just as he chooses." -1Cor 12:4-11 

***God gives the Holy Spirit so that we can be joined to the body of Christ(the Church, the Christian Community). The new life in the Spirit will allow you to be more closely united with other Christians in the Church and to experience a communion with them in the Spirit. God's Word teaches:

"So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints and part of God's chosen household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit." - Eph 2:19:22 





RECEIVING GOD'S GIFT

"If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who believes in me! As scripture says: From his heart shall flow fountains of living water." -John 7:37-38



Preparing To Be Baptized In The Spirit 

Brother or sister,

This week the Lord Himself want to prepare you. Do not be afraid or worried. Do not ask yourself how you can possibly get ready. Do not ask yourself how you can possibly get ready. Just ask the Lord to prepare you. He loves you, and he will do it.

Let the words of life speak to you. God's word will prepare you.

Do not let Satan confuse you. If you feel confusion or doubt or anxiety come on you, tell Satan to go away. Tell him you belong to Jesus and Jesus is your Lord. Put your faith in God.

God loves you. He wants to give you the fullness of life in the Spirit. He has promised that he will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Simply ask in confidence.

Satan will tell you that you do not deserve to be baptized in the Spirit, that you are not worthy of it. And he is right. No one is worthy of it. But God is not going to baptize you in the Spirit because you are worthy of it, he will do it because he loves you. He will do it because Jesus died for you.

 Jesus will change your life when you make the commitment to him and are prayed with. You will begin a new life in the Spirit. You can count on it, simply rely on God's promise.

Do not look for a particular kind of experience. Some people experience a great deal at the moment when they are prayed with, while others experience very little. What you want is the Holy Spirit, not an experience. Once you are in a new relationship with the Holy Spirit, you will experience a new sense of His presence. You will see him work in your life in a new way.

Ask the Lord for the gift of tongues. Tongues is a gift of God, even if you do not understand fully what it will do for you, trust God that his gifts really are gifts and worth having. If you are unwilling to receive the gift of tongues, you are putting a block on the Lord's work and the Holy Spirit will not be free to work fully in you. Open yourself to all of God's gifts, with no reservations.

Relax. God loves you. Remember that his fatherly love surrounds you. Remember that he sent his Son to save you. Each day entrust your life to his hands.

Read these words often this week. They will help you to prepare to be baptized in the Spirit.

"Our soul awaits in the Lord,
he is our help and shield;
our hearts rejoice in him,
we trust in his holy name.
Lord, let your love rest on us
as our hope has rested in you."

The Commitment To Christ

You will make a commitment to Christ before being prayed with, to be baptized in the Spirit. You will say a prayer expressing a commitment to Christ. Meditate on these questions and on the prayer during this week:

Do you renounce Satan and all wrongdoing?
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died to free us from our sins, and that he rose to bring us new life?
Will you follow Jesus as your Lord?

Lord Jesus Christ, I want to belong to you from now on. I want to be freed from the dominion of darkness and the rule of Satan, and I want to enter into your kingdom and be part of your people. I will turn away from all wrongdoing, and I will avoid everything that leads me to wrongdoing. I ask you to forgive all the sins that I have committed. I offer my life to you, and I promise to obey you as my Lord. I ask you to baptize me in the Holy Spirit and give me the gift of tongues. 


Words of Life

Day 1:

God has a new life for you, because he loves you. It is a gift, you cannot earn it or deserve it. God's word says:

"When the kindness and love of God our savior for mankind were revealed, it was not because he was concerned with any righteous actions we might have done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own compassion that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and by renewing us with the Holy Spirit which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our Savior." -Tit 3:4-6
 
Day 2:

The new life is the Spirit is a gift, but you have to turn to Jesus to receive it. All those who come to him receive new life abundantly. Jesus says:

"If any man is thirsty, let him come to me! Let the man come and drink who believes in me! As scripture says: From his heart shall flow fountains of living water." - John 7:37-3 

Day 3:

To turn to Jesus, you turn away from everything incompatible with the life he is offering (repentance) and accept the promises he is making (belief and faith). When you turn to Jesus in repentance and faith, he can give new life to you. Jesus says:

"The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the good news (the gospel)." -Mk 1:15

Day 4:

This new life is for everyone who will turn to the Lord. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for you. Satan will try to deceive you into thinking that you are someone who cannot be baptized in the Spirit, but the word of God says:

"You must repent, and every one of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself." - Acts 2:38-39

Day 5:

You cannot earn or deserve the gift of the Holy Spirit, but you do have to put away everything in your life which is incompatible with the Christian life. The new life means that you will be holy as God is holy. God's word says:

"You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, idolators, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, usurers, drankards, slanderers,and swindlers will never inherit the kingdom of God." - 1Cor. 6:9-10 

Day 6:

Faith means relying on what God has promised. You know that God can do something. You know that he does not lie. Rely on God's promises and claim them  from him as Abraham did, and you will see him work in a new way in your life. God's word says:

"Since God has promised it, Abraham refused either to deny it or even doubt it, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God, convinced that God had power to do what he had promised." - Romans 4:20-21

Day 7:

When you turn to the Lord in repentance and faith, all you have to do is ask the Lord for the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit. We know that we can have the Holy Spirit, because God loves us and wants to be as fully united to us as possible. Jesus promises that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

"So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? If you then, who are stingy, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" - Luke 11:9-13


BAPTIZED IN THE SPIRIT

Day One

Last night you were prayed with. Today is a new day. You may feel a new joy, a new peace, a praise of God welling up within you. You may feel doubt, a feeling that you made a fool of yourself last night a feeling of confusion or depression. You may even feel all those things at once. But the life of the Spirit is not based on feelings.

Today is the day to begin a new life in faith. If you committed your life to Christ and asked him to baptize you in the Holy Spirit then you were baptized in the Spirit. You may feel any number of things, but you made a new beginning last night. Now you must live that new beginning in faith.

Consider the facts. When you are baptized in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in a new way. You are not yet fully controlled by the Holy Spirit, you still have to grow into the life of the Spirit, but he is in you in a new way.

Satan is also concerned with you in a new way. Since you now have more spiritual power you are more dangerous to him, and he would like to him, and he would like to stop you. After Jesus  was baptized he entered into spiritual battle in a new way (Luke 4:1-13). In the same way, now that you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you enter into spiritual battle in a new way.

Suppose a friend of yours wanted to get into a certain room, and he came to you and you gave him a key. Now suppose that someone wants to keep your friend from getting into that room. He has the key, and nothing should stop him from entering. But if he can be convinced that he does not really have the key, then he may never use it and he would not get into the room. Now that you have been baptized in the Spirit, Satan will try to make you think it was not real or that it did not happen to you. That's his number one tactic.

His number two tactic is just the opposite. His number tactic is to convince you that now that you have the Holy Spirit you are all set. Your problems are gone, you don't need anything or anyone else. He will try to make you think you do not need to pray. You do not need to learn how to live in the Spirit, you do not need the help of other Christians. If you see a train of thoughts like that starting to go through your mind, beware. You are being built up for a fall.

Have no fear. Simply put your faith in God. Resist all doubts and anxieties. Let the joy and peace and praise of God fill you. In humility begin to learn from God and from your brothers and sisters how to live the life of the Spirit. Remember that you are only a beginner.

Do not let the gift of tongues worry you. If you did not pray in tongues last night, just look for it to happen. It could happen almost anytime. If you said something last night but are not sure whether it was tongues or not, keep on saying it. If it was tongues, it will grow and develop. If it was not tongues, it can turn into tongues. If you did pray in tongues but it sounds like stuttering, keep on doing it. It will grow and develop.

Pray in tongues everyday. It will grow in value for you.

Now that you have been baptized in the Spirit, you need to grow in the life of the Spirit. If you are having any difficulties or are unsure of what has happened. Satan will try hard to keep you away from other Christians. 

God loves you. He wants you to live in union with him. Living the life of the Spirit is very simple: listen to God's word, put your faith in it and obey it. He will lead you. 


 
WORDS OF LIFE

Day1:
When you were prayed with yesterday, a change was made in your life. You can count on Satan to try to confuse you. You can count on God to be with you and to want to lead you to a new life. God's word says:

"Unload all your worries on to God, since he is looking after you. Be calm but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone do devour. Stand up to him, strong in faith." -1Peter 5:7-9 

Day 2:
The Lord has given you a new power in the Spirit. Make use of it. It may not seem like much at the moment, or it may seem like a lot, but make use of what He has given you, and it will increase. The Lord commends those who are faithful when He says:

 "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have shown you can be faithful in small things. I will trust you with greater, come and join in your master's happiness." -Matthew 25:23 

Day 3:

When you live in the Spirit, the Spirit prays in you. Let him pray in you often during the day, sometimes in English, sometimes in the new tongue he has given you. Even if you have only a few syllables in a new tongue or if you are not sure of it, pray in that tongue every day and it will grow. God's word encourages you.

"Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion." -Ephesians 6:18

Day 4:

Learn to set your thoughts on the Lord and on the things of the Spirit. Think about the Lord. Meditate on the words of life he speaks. Understand how to live his life. If God's truth forms your mind, you will find life and peace. God's word promises you:

"To set the mind on what is unspiritual is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." -Romans 8:6 

Day 5: 

The Lord wants you to have spiritual gifts, because he wants to give you the power to serve him in an effective way. But he wants you to know that the aim of the Christian life is to love God and to love one another. That must be the center of your concern. God's word says:

"Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts." -1Cor.14:1 

Day 6:

How can you tell if you are a spiritual person? Frequently people have the idea that we have many spiritual gifts. But spiritual gifts are not a good measure of how spiritual we are. You can tell if you are a spiritual person by how much the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy,peace, patience,kindness,generosity,faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) characterizes your life. Paul warns us as he speaks to the Corinthians:

"Brothers, I myself was unable to speak to you as spiritual men: I treated you as sensual men, still infants in Christ. What I fed you with was milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it; and indeed, you are still not ready for it since you are still unspiritual. Isn't that obvious from all the jealousy and wrangling that there is among you?" -1Cor. 3:1-13 

Day 7:

God wants us to live with him in heaven. The difficulties we face on earth are small compared with the glory of heaven. The gift of the Spirit is simply a first installment, a pledge of what is to come. God promises you:

"Yes, the troubles which are soon over, through they weigh little, train us for the carrying of a weight of eternal glory which is out of all proportion to them. For we know that when the tent that we live in on earth is folded up, there is a house built by God for us, an everlasting home not make by human hands, in the heavens. This is the purpose for which God, made us, and he has given us the pledge of the Spirit." - 2Cor. 4:16;5,5 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 


 (to be continued)


by: Charistmatic Renewal Services, Inc.