Posted on

Our Human Spirit – Exercise Your Spirit – A Training Camp

Exercise-your-spirit-a-Training-Camp

The Lord Jesus Christ is ever new and ever fresh. The Christian life is rich with the enjoyment of such a Christ. 

  • But how do we live such a life?
  • How can we serve God and how can we walk with God in our daily life?
  • When we say, “Exercise your spirit”. What comes to mind?

The way to live the Christian life is by the exercise of our spirit. In this Bible study we present a genuine training on how to exercise our human spirit. 

Find yourself struggling with the exercise of your spirit? Open up to the Lord about it and also open up to other Christians about it. By sharing our struggles, we can help one another. 

Get into the attached Bible verses and study materials in a prayerful and sober way and energize your Christian life by the exercise of your spirit.

Exercise Your Spirit – A Training Camp – PDF

Exercise Your Spirit – A Training Camp – PowerPoint Slides

Posted on

Morning Revival Exercises – Pray Reading the Word

Morning-Revival-Pray-Reading-the-Word

Verses for Today

2 Corinthians 3:17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

Ephesians 6:17 And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God,

Ephesians 6:18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints,

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Fellowship

The goal of morning revival is to get revived and we can get revived by touching the Lord. Because 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that the Lord is the Spirit, we know that we have to use our own human spirit to contact Him. Our human spirit corresponds to the Lord as the Spirit. The Lord Jesus even instructs us in John 4:24 to use our human spirit to contact Him!

Did you know you had a human spirit? This is a spiritual organ deep inside you. When you call on the name of the Lord you are exercising your spirit. When you tell Him you love Him you are exercising your spirit. Essentially, whenever you turn your being to the Lord and direct your heart and your speaking to Him, you are exercising your spirit. Reading only with our eyes and our mind, like we do for school, is not enough for us to touch the living Christ who is the Spirit today. What we need is to pray to contact our dear Lord Jesus all the time, even while reading His word.

Here are some examples. If you reply to the Word of God with an “Amen Lord,” that is to contact the Lord. If you begin to read a verse with, “Oh, Lord Jesus,” and then read the verse, then this is also an excellent way to contact the Lord, that is, to touch the Lord through prayer as you read. 

There is not one way to pray-read. Ephesians 6:18 shows us that we should receive the Word by means of all prayer. This means all kinds of prayer. When pray-reading, you can be calling on the Lord, confessing, or petitioning the Lord. All prayer is good. In fact, using John 6:63 as an example, you can say to the Lord, “Lord, It is the Spirit who gives Life; Lord, You are the Spirit and You give life. Lord, give life to me!”

Those who have tried pray-reading have discovered that it is one of the quickest ways to get out of our selfishness and into the enjoyment of God. God has put His very thoughts into the Bible. By praying and reading the Bible, His selfless, loving, and pure thoughts get into us and can even become our thoughts. This is a part of sanctification. By pray-reading, we are being sanctified! Moreover, John 6:63 tells us that the Spirit gives life. Therefore, whenever we pray-read, we not only receive God’s thoughts, but even His life.

Do practice contacting the Lord while reading His word. If there are several verses that you read, pick one and linger there, praying with the words from that verse, and contacting the Lord Jesus. This is an excellent way to be revived morning by morning. 

Posted on

Morning Revival Exercises – Confessing Your Sins

Morning-Revival-Confessing-your-sins

Verses for Today

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Matthew 1:21 And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin. 

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, / So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Fellowship

When we sin, there is a separation between us and God; we just can’t look Him in the eye so easily because there is a real guilt of sin with us. By confessing we can be free from this guilt and this separation. This is something we should deal with as soon as we can. When we come to the Lord in the morning and are conscious of any sin we’ve committed, we should confess to the Lord right away and receive His forgiveness.

Notice how 1 John 1:9 says, “that if we confess our sins, HE IS FAITHFUL and RIGHTEOUS to forgive us…” In other words, His forgiveness is based on who He is and what He’s done. All we have to do on our side to receive His forgiveness is to confess. This is the best news of the day! For anyone who confesses, Jesus Christ is there to forgive. Hallelujah! 

God actually has to forgive us – not only because He said that He would and He would surely not go against His own word, but because He is even righteously obligated to forgive us. To see this, we must understand God’s righteousness. God required the shedding of blood for our sins. God is righteous, altogether just. He cannot simply turn a blind eye to injustices. He judges sinners righteously, and, because He cannot tolerate any sin, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

In His great mercy and wisdom, God made a plan to save us from the wages of sin. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, this One who is God, Jehovah, the Great I Am (John 8:24, 58), to die in our stead and to pay the price for our sins. Isaiah 53:5 says: “But He was wounded because of our transgressions; / He was crushed because of our iniquities; / The chastening for our peace was upon Him, / And by His stripes we have been healed.” and verse 8 of the same chapter says that, “He was cut off out of the land of the living / For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due”. 

Jesus Christ was the sinless one. He did not have to die for Himself because He had no sin. Yet he paid the price for all the sins of mankind. The debt that we owed was fully paid. By His death on the cross, all of God’s righteousness could be fulfilled. God required the blood, and Jesus’ blood satisfied God’s requirement. Matthew 1:21 says: “And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” Had you realized that Jesus was born to come and die for us? How we praise and thank Him! We were supposed to die for our sins, but God gave us Jesus as the provision to satisfy God’s righteous requirement.  (UUCOC.org, Forgiven because God is Faithful and Righteous , Dec 23, 2020)

Don’t miss the video from Joseph in Oklahoma City

Posted on

Morning Revival Exercises – Praising the Lord

Morning-Revival-Praising-the-Lord

Verses for Today

Psalms 8:1 O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth, / You who have set Your glory over the heavens!

Psalms 8:2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings / You have established strength / Because of Your adversaries, / To stop the enemy and the avenger.

Matt 21:16 And they said to Him, Do You hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read, “Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise”?

Fellowship

The Lord Jesus quoted the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament when He said, “Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise.” That’s precisely what is happening in our morning time with the Lord. God is perfecting our praise. Let us open to Him, not holding back. He is the worthy One and we are His chosen little ones. No matter how young we are, we can praise Him!

When we praise the Lord, we transcend whatever situation we might be in. In fact, praising Him when all is going well does not glorify God as much as when we, His children, praise Him when things are not going so well. This is why Hebrews 13:15 reminds us: “let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God.” It is a sacrifice because we don’t have to feel so good before we praise. God sees our praise as a sacrifice when we praise Him in the middle of trials. So let us not wait for a better time. Praise the Lord!

The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as our wonderful Savior. One way we can be perfected in our praise is to use the very words of the Bible to praise Him!

Listen to this short example and don’t forget to try it for yourself!

Posted on

Morning Revival Exercises – Telling the Lord that you Love Him

Morning-Revival-Telling-the-Lord-that-you-Love-Him

Verses for Today

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Fellowship

When we we wake up in the morning, our heart may not be turned to the Lord and our mind may naturally rush to things other than the Lord. We always need to warm up our heart with love toward the Lord. Telling Him that we love Him surely warms our heart and turns it toward Him! In fact, this is one of the easiest yet most enjoyable exercises we can do! Try to do this every day when you wake up, before you do anything else, even before you get out of bed: say, “Lord Jesus, I love You!”. What a sweet and even romantic start to your day! “Lord Jesus, I love You!” You wont’ become a religious Christian in this way. You’ll become a romantic Christian.

Then once you are up and begin having a definite time with the Lord you can try telling the Lord once again:

“Oh Lord I love You, I really love You.”

Other Suggested prayer:

“Lord, I love You. Attract me, that I may love You more. Rekindle my love for You this very day. Every day I want my love for You to be fresh and sweet. Come and make Your home in my heart. You are the One I desire.” (Life Messages, vol. 2, p. 206)

Here is a song you can sing to the Lord!

You shall love the Lord with all your heart
You shall love the Lord with all your soul,
You shall love the Lord with all your mind,
With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

Oh, Lord I love You for all the things You are!
Oh, Lord I love You for all the things You do!
Oh, Lord I love You. Help me love You more,
With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind.

Posted on

Morning Revival – The best time

Morning-Revival-the-best-time

Verses for today

Psalm 5:3 O Jehovah, in the morning You will hear my voice; In the morning I will set forth my words in order to You, and I will watch.

Psalm 88:13 But I, O Jehovah, have cried out to You; and in the morning my prayer comes before You.

Lamentations 3:22-23a It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning…

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.

Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

Fellowship

To be revived is simply to be touched by the Lord anew. Everyone can have a morning revival. Without this new beginning every morning, we cannot have a proper Christian life during the day. The best time to be revived is in the morning!

Every morning, after rising up, go to a definite place in your home, tune everything out, and contact the Lord Jesus.

Let us begin to build up the practice of morning revival. You might start out with 5 minutes, but don’t worry too much about the time; just do your best to contact the living Christ. If you are new to this practice, great! That’s what this series is about, for us to help one another!

Here are some of the many things you can do do be revived each morning. And below is an excellent video tutorial.

  • Pray to God
  • Call on His Name
  • Tell Him you love Him
  • Praise Him
  • Pray-Read a verse
  • Confess your sins
  • Sing to God

Posted on

God has Surely Answered Our Prayer

Christians-on-Campus-University-of-Utah-Meeting-with-the-BrothersPsa. 90:14 – Satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness that we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days.

If Psalm 90:14 is a prayer, then God has surely answered our prayer! I’ve been meeting with a couple of my Christian brothers from Christians on Campus a few times a week just to pray and touch the Lord in the morning. We usually start by seeing how each one is doing. “Hey, how are you today?” Even that is refreshing. Then we each say a little prayer to open our hearts to the Lord. In a nutshell, it’s like saying, “Good morning God, we’re here.”

Then we start reading a few verses and we mingle our reading with prayer, repeating the words in the verses and saying, “Amen”. That makes it like a fun breakfast where we’re passing the delicious dishes back and forth between us. One brother starts, then the others reply, “Amen!” Then another might declare a word or two from the verse, and the others support him. It’s like speaking to one another the words of each verse! And then we might interject, “Wow, thank you Lord!”, or “Jesus, we praise you for __”. I feel like we’re really experiencing Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16.

Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord, – Eph 5:19

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God. – Col 3:16

Sometimes we go for 15 minutes and sometimes for 20 minutes. I really thank God for giving me that time with the brothers, just to take Him in. God has been faithful and satisfying every time. In closing this short testimony, the verse from Lamentations comes to mind:

It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. – Lam. 3:22-23.

– Daniel

Posted on

It Led Me to Want More Fellowship with God

Spending some time in the morning with the brothers has been great. Being able to get knowledge from other people has been very helpful for me in getting to know God better. As good fellowship with others should, it has led me to want to fellowship with God even more.

It’s also been a great way to slow things down. It gives me some time to forget everything else going on and just talk with other people who love Jesus. Overall the experience has been enjoyable.

– Ariel

Posted on

Higher Ground: Week 2 Ministry Reading – Early Rising

Did you enjoy our dear Lord Jesus in Week (1)? Spend time this week (2) to practice opening your heart to Him again every day. Nothing is more worthwhile than this!  Love Him and give every aspect of your life to Christ. 

The Week 2 Ministry Reading is EARLY RISING by Watchman Nee. Please read the whole chapter but give special attention to  Roman Numeral III. WHAT TO DO IN THE EARLY MORNING.

  • You can read it online for free at:
    www.ministrybooks.org
  • From the menu choose “Books A-Z”.
  • Then, under the letter “C”, scroll down to find:
  • Collected Works of Watchman Nee (Set 3) Vol. 48: Messages for Building Up New Believers (1)
  • Select it and then read chapter 11: Early Rising.
Posted on

Life Practices – A Time with the Lord in the Morning

Higher Ground | Day 6

A TIME WITH THE LORD IN THE MORNING

Psa. 90:14 – Satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness that we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days.
Lam. 3:22-23 – It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

In the Bible we find God’s servants rising up early in the morning. Let us consider their examples: Abraham (Gen. 19:27; 21:14; 22:3), Jacob (Gen. 28:18), Moses (Exo. 8:20; 9:13; 24:4; 34:4), Joshua (Josh. 3:1; 6:12; 7:16; 8:10), Gideon (Judg. 6:38), Hannah (1 Sam. 1:19), Samuel (1 Sam. 15:12), David (1 Sam. 17:20), Job (Job 1:5), Mary (Luke 24:22; Mark 16:9; John 20:1), [and] the apostles (Acts 5:21). These many verses tell us that God’s servants had the habit of dealing with God early in the morning. Every one of them had the habit of waking early in the morning and fellowshipping with God early in the morning. They rose up early in the morning to do many things related to God’s business. They also rose up early in the morning to consecrate themselves. Although there is no commandment in the Bible that tells
us to get up early, there are sufficient examples in the Bible to show us that all faithful servants of God rise up early. Even the Lord Jesus Himself rose up early. He rose up very early in the morning, while it was still night, and went away to a deserted place to pray (Mark 1:35). When He wanted to appoint the twelve apostles, He called them to Himself early in the morning (Luke 6:13). If the Lord had to rise up early to do these things, how much more do we need to rise up early?

Any brother or sister who wants to follow the Lord must never think that there is little difference in rising up an hour early. Early rising brings in great blessing. We hope that you will not miss the blessing of early rising at the start of your Christian life. (Messages for Building Up New Believers, pp. 167-168)