PLUGGING INTO JESUS
March 18, 2001 pm
MF Blume
John 15:1-9 I am the true vine,
and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit
he taketh away: and every [branch] that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that
it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which
I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch,
and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and
they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath
loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
I wish to continue our thought from this morning's service, since we
did not have time to speak of all of it.
CHristians must adjust your perception of yourself by learning what
the Bible says about you.
-
I highly recommend a book entitled VICTORY OVER THE DARKNESS, by Neil Anderson.
-
It details this very truth that we have concentrated upon for the last
two years in this church.
-
I was excited to read the very truths that I have been preaching here to
you.
-
God is truly opening up this truth in these days to His church!
We are as much new creatures and completely different entities from our
old lives as an eagle is different than a frog!
-
Imagine a frog turned into an eagle by the power of God.
-
But that eagle still has memories of being a frog.
-
Its no longer a frog, but it still thinks it is!
-
And the eagle is seen hopping around on a lily pads and trying to reach
its tongue out to catch flies.
-
The eagle could be soaring into the sky above the storm clouds in pure
majesty!
-
But it still thinks its a frog!
This is exactly the picture with many Christians who have no understanding
of who they became once they were put into Christ when they were first
saved!
You are a new creature, if you experienced Acts 2:38.
-
There is no need for you to make yourself one.
John saw who Jesus was in the vision of Revelation 1.
-
But we need to see who we are in Christ.
-
John saw the Churches plugged into Jesus as branches of a candlestick stemming
out of Jesus.
We need to plug into Jesus and stay plugged into Jesus all of our lives.
-
Like a light must remain connected to electricity in order for it to produce
light, we must remain plugged into Jesus in order to live a victoriously
Christian life.
-
Too many saints do not plug into Jesus, though.
When I come here to preach, I understand that I must plug into Jesus before
I even think to speak.
-
I understand that prayer towards God to quicken my mind, and to give me
the anointing and the thoughts that He wants me to speak to you will cause
God to produce through me what He wants in this service tonight.
-
Unless I plug into Jesus like that, you will not receive help from God
through me.
-
God may use someone else who is plugged into Him, but He cannot use me
unless I am plugged into Him.
I plug into Him by depending upon His Spirit for the strength and anointing
to do His work.
-
If you sing, you may be a professional singer with much ability and skill.
-
But your singing is useless to God if you do not learn to plug into Jesus
before you sing.
-
You can think of all sorts of things to testify about to other people here
tonight.
-
But if you do not plug into Jesus and seek for Him to give you the thoughts
and words that He wants you to say, then you will do nothing for anybody.
We do not need TO lug into Jesus in order to know what food to eat for
today's meals.
-
Some people think you do!
-
That is rather silly, though.
-
But anything that regards the Kingdom of God and your work for Him in it,
requires you to plug into Jesus in order to do it.
Some believers do not even think to ask the Lord to use them when they
perform a work of God.
-
They have never been taught the truths of John 15.
-
Abiding in Christ is simply plugging into Jesus.
-
Its relying upon Him to do your work for God.
-
God doesn't need your intellectuality or your popularity amongst people.
-
His word teaches that He uses the foolish things to confound the wise.
-
He wants to get the thought across to us that we must plug into HIm!
Churches dry up and blow away when they fail to learn how to plug into
Jesus.
-
We gather together and sing choruses of praise.
-
But some stand there and talk to each other while the rest of the people
praise Jesus.
-
You not only interfere with the moving of the Spirit of God when you do
that, but you are not plugging into Jesus so that when the sermon is preached
to you, you can receive everything that it offers for your Christian life
and spiritual maturity.
-
Reach out and mean every word that you sing when you sing choruses of praise.
-
Reading words from a hymn book and not meaning one word that you sing is
as bad as reading prayers from a prayer book.
-
Its heartless!
-
Its spirit-less!
When we gather together for worship, we have given time for God to have
His will in our lives.
-
We have absolutely no place to take that time that the saints have dedicated
to Him and chit-chat to one another about the weather or the plans that
you have for tomorrow, while the saints of God praise Jesus.
-
Please plug into Jesus when you come to service.
People seek the baptism of the Holy Ghost and come and chit-chat and stand
there motionless and silent, while the saints of God praise and worship.
-
And they wonder why they are not receiving the Holy Ghost.
-
They are not plugging into Jesus!
-
You must flow with the worship and let the Spirit of God lead your soul
and mind as your praise Him.
-
Open your heart to Him and sing every hymn of praise from your very soul
and spirit!
Those not plugging into Jesus are like branches broken off a vine that
produce no fruit and wonder why they produce no fruit.
-
I recall that shortly after I was first saved, and began sharing my testimony
in service, that I would reach out and praise the Lord in the singing and
worship service.
-
And then my mind would be filled with thoughts of the Lord.
-
I would speak them to the church as a mere teenager, and so many times
those very thoughts were what the minister received from God to preach
in that very same service!
-
How does that happen?
-
You plug into Jesus and concentrate on thoughts of praise for Him, and
He begins flowing through your soul by His Spirit and gives you inspired
thoughts!
If everyone in church services would plug into Jesus, we would blow the
roof off the house every time we had service!
-
God would move marvelously!
-
Miracles would occur!
-
People would flow together in the unity of the Spirit and visitors would
be amazed and touched deep within by the very power of God!
Holding attitudes against each other will kill the moving of God's Spirit
amongst you.
-
There is more reason than simply keeping us from hell that the Lord urges
us to forgive one another and love one another!
-
He needs you to plug into Him in order for you to be used by Him!
In the Bible, the reference to creatures named "cherubim" is made.
-
Traditional ideas of the cherubim make them out to be naked infants flying
with wings and holding bows with arrows to pierce lovers' hearts with passion
for one another.
-
Needless to say, these are not what the Bible calls Cherubim or Cherubs
Ezekiel 10:1 Then I looked, and, behold,
in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared
over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness
of a throne.
Let us see what this chapter gives as the appearance of the cherubim.
Ezekiel 10:14 And every one had
four faces: the first face [was] the face of a cherub, and the second face
[was] the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth
the face of an eagle.
And the reference to "the face of a cherub" refers to something quite different
than an infant's face, for we read the following in the same book:
Ezekiel 1:10 As for the likeness
of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion,
on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on
the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
Its an "ox" in chapter 1!
Perhaps the devil wants us to think that they are infant angels!
-
Because the truth is that these cherubim are YOU THE CHURCH!
Revelation 4:6-7 And before the throne
[there was] a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne,
and round about the throne, [were] four beasts full of eyes
before and behind. And the first beast [was] like a lion, and the second
beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth
beast [was] like a flying eagle.
Reve 5:8 And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and four [and] twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours,
which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings
and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
We know that angels were not redeemed by the blood of the lamb!
And who did John say were the kings and priests?
Revelation 1:5-6 And from Jesus
Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings
and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be] glory and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen.
The people of the Church are the kings and priests!
We are power-houses in Jesus Christ!
-
We need to see ourselves as Kings and Priests!
-
Hebrew culture deems the EAGLE as the king of the FOWL, and the OX is the
KING of the cattle, and the LION is the KING of the beasts.
-
These are KINGS!
-
No wonder they represent us who are kings and priests!
Here is what Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel Chapter 1:5-16, when
He saw the cherubims.
That is what the devil sees when he sees you coming!!!!
-
Maybe that is the reason he wants you to think that cherubims are naked
babies with little wings and bows and arrows!
-
Ha!
And over the heads of the cherubims, was a firmament, with a throne on
top made of sapphire.
-
On the throne was the same one whom John saw in Revelation 1!
Ezekiel 1:22-28 And the likeness of
the firmament upon the heads of the living creature [was] as the colour
of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. And under
the firmament [were] their wings straight, the one toward the other: every
one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered
on that side, their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their
wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the
voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down
their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that [was] over their
heads, when they stood, [and] had let down their wings. And above the firmament
that [was] over their heads [was] the likeness of a throne, as the appearance
of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne [was] the likeness
as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour
of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance
of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward,
I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness
round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in
the day of rain, so [was] the appearance of the brightness round about.
This [was] the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And
when I saw [it], I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
Compare with:
Revelation 1:12-15 And I turned
to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden
candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto
the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot,
and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and
[his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were]
as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they
burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
Revelation 4:2-3 And immediately I was in
the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and
one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and
a sardine stone: and [there was] a rainbow round about the throne,
in sight like unto an emerald.
Ezekiel called this the glory of the Lord.
Here is the GLORY OF THE LORD that Ezekiel saw.
Notice what the ark of the covenant was called in the Bible:
1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the
child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because
the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and
her husband.
And Ezekiel called this sight of the chariot of Cherubims, the GLORY OF
THE LORD.
Ezekiel 1:28b ... This [was] the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw [it], I fell upon
my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
The ark of the covenant is a model of the GLORY OF THE LORD that Ezekiel
saw in the Spirit.
-
Just as the cherubim (four beasts in Revelation) were situated beneath
the firmament upon which stood a throne with Christ seated on it,
the priests of old Carried over their heads the Ark of the Covenant, with
its mercyseat, depicting the throne of God.
-
And the beasts even called themselves "priests" in Rev. 5:10!
The ark of the covenant and the Chariot of Ezekiel both depict the GLORY
OF THE LORD.
-
Notice what mankind is called by God.
1Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought
not to cover [his] head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of
God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
Man is the glory of God!
-
This portrays in the spirit what Apostolic people of God are in this world!
-
We carry Christ with us!
-
We transport the King of Kings with us!
-
We are the kings, depicted by the faces of the kings of the animals kingdoms,
and Christ is over our heads as KING OF KINGS.
We need to plug into Jesus and enjoy this power that He has given to the
church!
-
What enemy can stop us when we know who we are in Jesus Christ!?
-
Plug into Jesus!
The ark of the covenant circled Jericho on the shoulders of the priests
and the walls came down when they shouted!
The Jordan was a barrier to the Hebrews when they sought to enter the
Promised land.
-
But when Joshua told the priests to carry the ark and walk into the river's
waters, the waters opened up and the Hebrews walked over on dry ground!
We are the glory of God, Church!
-
Lift Jesus up and walk by faith!
-
No weapon formed against you shall prosper (Isa. 54:17)!
-
If God be for us, then who can be against us (Ro. 8:31)?
-
Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Plug into Jesus and enjoy all of this!
-
Its our's but only when we plug into Jesus Christ.
-
Abide in Him and you shall have much fruit (results).