Connecting To The Stream Of The Spirit Series

Connecting to the stream of the Spirit

Do you remember when life seemed simpler?

Do you remember when if you wanted to make a call when you were out you had to find a telephone box or wait till you got home?

Do you remember when you used to write letters instead of sending an email?

Today we rely on email and text messages to communicate with others much more than traditional posted mail or snail mail as its called.

Before text messages, before email, the three fastest ways to communicate information were:

Telegraph - Morse Code.

Telephone - Verbal Communication.

and Tell a woman.

Well those were fast, ways to communicate but today we have Text Messages, Facebook and Twitter, Periscope, GooglePlus WhatsApp, Skype

Messages appear in real time on our computer screens, our phones, iPods, iPads and Tablets.

Today through the power of the Internet we can have friendship and near instant communication with people all around the world.

Maybe you are part of the “connected” generation.

Perhaps you spend hours tweeting on Twitter or updating your status on Facebook.

Perhaps you are one of the people who help to generate the stream of millions of words that flow across the Internet every day,

or maybe you just like to read and see what everyone else is doing.

If you are connected to this stream of information, have you considered if there is something you could be doing with it or contributing to it?

For example, this week on social media there has been a lot about the Earthquake in Nepal - have you used the information to fuel your prayers?

When friends comment about situations in their lives do you pray about them?

More importantly, are you taking the opportunity to share Christ with the people you know?

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If you are my friend on Facebook you will know that I mainly post verses from the bible, thoughts, links to Christian Music Videos, words of encouragement to other people, links to our Sermon Podcast and invitations to church events and activities.

On my Facebook account I have a number of “friends” that I have never physically met -

some of them are friends of friends that have been encouraged by what I have shared.

Others have become friends after listening to our Podcast . It’s amazing the lives that God is touching around the world with our podcast.

I get a lot of feedback on what I post,

some people comment so that others can see what they say to me and others send me messages that others can not see.

And strangely some people even re-quote what I post to their own group of friends.

When I add to the stream of information that flows around the World - my first thought is always “does this honour God in some way?”.

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Recently, on a Monday Evening I spent quite a while in prayer.

I spent time some time praying for various situations, things that I knew about from talking to people in the real world, things I knew about from communicating with my online friends and things that God just placed in my heart.

And as I prayed, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to post some verses from the bible and some words of encouragement.

Then I prayed a little more and then shared more things that I felt God wanted me to share with others.

Some of the things God prompted me to write

I did not feel were directed at specific friends,

But I felt that the Spirit was guiding me to share certain things for a reason.

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On the Tuesday morning 3 of my online friends contacted me:

One from Australia asked how I knew what was going on in her life.

She had not shared with anyone an issue she had been facing and was amazed that the words God had led me to post had spoken comfort, encouragement and direction to her.

The second person was from the USA that said, they had been praying that God would speak into a specific situation in their life - they felt that God had answered via a specific Christian music video I had shared. They were pleased it had spoken into their life when they needed guidance.

The third message from another friend simply said, Thank you, you can stop putting things for me on Facebook now, I get the message.

Isn’t God wonderful - 3 different people,

three very different situations,

and God spoke to each of them.

In the stream of information that flowed out onto the internet God used that stream of typed words of encouragement to bless, direct and encourage these people thousands of miles away and I praise Him for doing that.

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Then Tuesday afternoon 2 more people contacted me because the Lord had spoken to them through the words He had prompted me to write.