Spirit, Soul, Body

Seldom have I found such a clear word as what I am posting below. It is written by Mary Ellen Reber, a former student of mine when I taught at Columbia Seminary. She and Chris have spent their entire ministry in Bangladesh, slugging it out among the hardest to harvest:

Christ abides in your human spirit if you are His property. She understands this:

"People of Antioch, I call your spirit to attention. Listen to the Word of God for you - "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and godliness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:2-8).

"People of Antioch, your Father God designed your spirit, your soul, and your body, and He ordains and oversees their alignment. I call your spirit to the highest position in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

"I speak to your slumbering spirit to wake up, and I say to you that it is safe, it is time, it is right for your spirit to look outward and upward into the face of your Father God. Holy Spirit, come and speak to Your child's spirit the truth that he is accepted, affirmed, capable, and beloved in You, that he has no lack that detracts from who he is in Your eyes. Nothing can separate him from Your love. Holy Spirit speak to his spirit in a language he can understand and receive. Your promise to him is that he has grace and peace in abundance in You, that as he pursues Jesus and knows Him more deeply, Your divine power gives him everything he needs for living a godly life and receiving his own glory and goodness.

"I call your soul to attention, People of Antioch, saying "Come under God's order. Soul, be healed, restored and whole, submitted to your spirit. Be free from the spirit of fear that would paralyze you - fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of meaninglessness, fear of man, etc." I speak to your soul that it will discern the voice of your Father and your Savior, who will never leave you, and receive His love that casts out fear. Father, cut through the assaults of lies, soulishness, performance, religious spirits, all contrary words spoken or contrary prayers prayed, and everything that keeps your child's soul from being joyful, at peace, effective, and productive.

"People of Antioch, I call your body to attention and command it to come into alignment with your spirit. Hormones, metabolic systems, immune system, brain chemistry and every physical system listen to your Creator God who said, "This is very good," and gave His blessing when He made you. In Jesus' name, come into divine order and alignment with the awesome and wonderful way that God intend you to function - whole, healthy, strong, resilient, and alert. Come into alignment with the ordained order where God has placed you, because He determined the appointed times set for you and the exact places where you should live. Come into alignment with your Father God, the Creator of all things. His covenant of life, peace, and joy precedes and stands above all devices and snares of the enemy. I bless you, people of Antioch, with full participation with the divine nature Father placed in you, His covenants and His blessings, by His great and precious promises that He ratified in Jesus' death on the cross and sealed with the Holy Spirit. I bless you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth."

5,000 Cell Groups Set Off Fireworks Simultaneously!

Last night I stood with the TV camera crew and Pastor Abe Huber on the rooftop of a tall building in Santarem, Brazil. The PAZ congregation has just passed the 50,000 count of cell group members. The PAZ IGREJA owns a TV station, used to direct all 5,000 cells to set off fireworks at the same identical moment across the city.

Wow! All around us to the horizon there were fireworks set off by each cell group. It went on for a full five minutes: crackles and flashes of light everywhere we looked, 360 degrees from that rooftop's view.

Santarem's 250,000 population experiences this public proclamation via fireworks twice each year as the cells give notice of their presence in all of the city's neighborhoods.

In the distance, all lit up, was the huge soccer stadium we will fill Friday and Saturday nights for a gathering of the cells. The seating is a bit smaller than the 60,000 expected, so screens are being set up to project the events to the overflow crowd! I will be preaching on "Psychikos, Sarkikos, Pneumatikos" on Saturday night ("Rejecting God, Rejecting Christ's Lordship, Placing Christ on the Throne). Hundreds of Cell Leaders will be prepared to pray with those who come for salvation or with believers repenting of carnal lifestyles.

I always knew that before the Lord takes me home I would experience a city totally impacted by Christ's Sacred Bodies, the cell groups. I will be smiling in my coffin!

SANTAREM'S CELL CHURCH: AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE

We are in Santarem, Brazil on the Amazon River. This community of 250,000 is about halfway between the mouth and end of the longest river in the world, surrounded by jungles. The cell church here has at present 50,000 in cell groups and conducts dozens of worship services back to back all day Sunday in several locations. We were invited to attend the 5 p.m. service. Arriving at 4:30, we slipped into a packed auditorium of 1,500 and watched with amazement as a total changeover took place at the end of the service, with another 1,500 packing in during a 14 minute break! At the end of the 5 p.m. service, about 350 members returned from their Encounter Retreat at their center a few miles out of town and packed into the area in front of the stage, singing and dancing as they shared reports of deliverances and spiritual victories experienced there. Upon leaving the auditorium we found the next worship service was so overpacked that projector screens and chairs seating hundreds were in the back field and the street in front of the building. They have over 100 pastors planting new cell churches in the villages up and down the Amazon, living on house boats with their families.

I was invited here to bless the church and delegates from all over South America for their annual conference, but will receive tenfold what I will give out! I will post pictures later for you to share in this awesome experience.