Carriers Of The Presence Of God And The Anointing

Text: Acts 3 : 1 – 8, “Now Pater and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!’ and he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankle were made strong. And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered into with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

Theme: Carriers of the Presence of God and the Anointing

Introduction

- A story is told of an adventurer, who decided to travel through Africa all by himself.

- After many days of travelling, crossing rivers and bushes, climbing mountains and hills, walking through plains and scrub, he became lost and didn’t know where he was even though he had a map [e]

- Luckily he came upon an old hut with an old man sitting on a stool outside.

- With a sigh of relief, he ran up to the old man and asked, “Please, can you tell me where I am?”

- The old man look at him, frowned as he thought very hard and then his brightened up.

- “You are here”, said the old man

- As amusing as this anecdote may be, it tells us something….you are here right now [e]

- And the Word of God teaches us that we can call down the Presence of God into this place [e]

- Why must we wait for the right conditions to invoke the Presence of God? [e]

- There is a train of thought in the modern church today that says:

• If the air conditioning is not on, then we cannot worship properly [e]

• If the singing is off key and the instruments are off tune, we cannot worship God properly [e]

• If there is not enough people at church or home cell, God cannot move [e]

• If we perceive that someone does not like us here, then we cannot worship God [e]

• If we don’t have what Pastor Jones and his church down the road has in his church, then the Presence of God won’t move here [e]

• If the pastor or elder or home cell leader does not come pray in my home, then God wont move [e]

• I have so much problems in my home, how can God come here? [e]

- Let’s clear up those misconceptions, this morning…..it doesn’t matter where you are or in what condition you find yourself, when you call on the Name of the Lord , He will answer you [e]

• The Presence of God was in prison with Joseph….Gen 39:21 – “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison”

• The Presence of God was in a fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego….Dan 3: 24 – “Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counsellors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?’ They answered and said, ‘True, O king.’ He answered and said, ‘But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.’”

• The Presence of God was in a lions den with Daniel…Dan 6: 21 - 22a - “Then Daniel said to the king, ‘O king live forever! My God sent his angels and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me…’”

• The Presence of God was with Jonah in the great fish’s belly….Jonah 2:2 – “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me, out of the belly of Sheol I cried and you heard my voice.”

- The Word of God teaches us this morning that we too must call upon God [e]

- We too, must invoke the Presence of God in this place [e]

- We must invoke the Presence of God at home [e]

- We must invoke the Presence of God in our “closet”

- I use the word “invoke”…what does that mean?