Guest Speaker: Pastor John Farley
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
What a transformation occurred between the crucifixion and the resurrection!
We have the water of the word of God.
The Holy Spirit uses divine power to transform the water of the word of God into the wine of the fruit of the Spirit.
It is only God the Holy Spirit that can cause a man to rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
We obey in the natural realm, and God moves in the supernatural realm.
This miracle deals with our desperate condition of need.
Christianity is the only thing that can deal with utterly desperate situations.
It is a law of the spiritual life that until we are utterly emptied of ourselves, we do not begin to receive the life of God.
God uses the wilderness – the no water, the no wine situation – to teach us the importance of our utter dependence on Him.
EPH 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
The Holy Spirit moves upon the waters and produces the wine of the dynamic spiritual life.
The Spirit turned the water of the Gospel words into the wine of eternal life.
When God’s miraculous power touches anyone, it entirely changes the whole person.
Christianity is not something you add to your life. It is something that totally transforms you!
We are born of the Spirit, JOH 3:5.
We are born again,
JOH 3:3.
It is the captives who have liberty proclaimed to them.
It starts with longing for Him and thirsting for Him and the life we cannot get anyplace else.
You will know when the Lord has touched you.
They look at men and women they have known all their lives and suddenly a marvelous change takes place.
The next best thing to living in the fullness of God is longing for it!
Remember this is characteristic of God’s grace: not only is it free, but it also has fullness and abundance and all-sufficiency.
LUK 22:20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”
2 Co 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
JOH 10:10b “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Not only forgiveness (purification – water), but also life and power (wine)!
Forgiveness – redemption, expiation, propitiation, reconciliation – these are all preparation: the necessary antidote for sin and the effects of sin.
They are followed up by justification, election, predestination, and glorification.
God’s ultimate purpose is to bring many sons not just to forgiveness, but all the way to GLORY!! (HEB 2:10)
It is only when we realize who He is that we see that God has put in Him the life that we are in need of.
Do we possess this life? Or even better…does this life possess us?
It is no use expecting blessings and life from God if we are not willing to obey Him!
First our status is transformed.
COL 1:13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Our nature is transformed.
2 Co 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Then our minds are transformed.
ROM 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
One day our bodies will be transformed.
Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
The empty water jars and the lack of wine speak of the emptiness of religion at Christ’s coming. It had been 400 years since the last miracle from the Lord.