The Triumph of the Cross!

Glory to the Living One; the One who was dead but behold is alive for ever and ever! Rev. 1:18

We praise God for a truly amazing weekend as we celebrated Christ's victory and triumph on the cross on Friday and His glorious resurrection on Sunday! Both meetings were very powerful as the Lord spoke to us about the significance of the cross and how His resurrection is a confirmation of the truth of who He is and the words He has spoken. The Lord reminded us that the cross has set the believer free!

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!" Gal. 5:1

1. The believer is set free from the law. Rom. 6:14; 7:4
2. The believer is set free from the power of the flesh and sin. Rom. 6:6
3. The believer is set free from the power of the world. 1 John 5:4
4. The believer is set free from the power of satan. Luke 10:19
5. The believer is therefore set free from the bondage of satan in his,

• body - Acts 10:36; 1 Peter 2:24
• soul - 2 Cor, 4:4 (mind); 2 Tim. 1:7 (heart); Eph. 2:1-3 (will)
• spirit - Eph. 2:1

Not only that! Christ has set us free to reign through Him! We have been reconciled to reign!

Those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through Jesus Christ! Rom. 5:17

On Sunday the Lord spoke to us about having faith in Him and His words alone. He showed us that He always confirms His word and that the greatest proof of His faithfulness to His word is the resurrection. Looking at Luke 24, we saw how God expects us to have faith in His word and not to doubt!

1. The angels "rebuked" the women at the tomb for looking "for the living among the dead" when Jesus had clearly told them that He would rise from the dead. Luke 24:5-8
2. Jesus "rebuked" the disciples on the road to Emmaus for not believing God's words. Luke 24:25
3. Jesus reminded the disciples about what He had told them. Luke 24:44

The Lord also reminded us that we need to seek His revelation as we trust in His Word. Luke 24:27, 32, 45; 1 Cor. 2:12

We also experienced great freedom in worship on Sunday and were blessed with God's presence and a powerful sense of His pleasure as we worshipped Him! We praise God for the prophetic words and songs He is giving us that encourage us and enable us to press in even closer to Him. Thank you Lord!

Next week a few of us will be travelling to England to attend the Kingdom Faith leaders' conference and look forward to a dynamic time with our church family there.



Quote of the week:

"Since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God." Romans 6:9,10

___________

Following the Spirit

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ!

The Lord is teaching us what it means to walk in the Spirit and yesterday we saw that to follow the Holy Spirit is to submit to His authority. We learned that,

• Submission is positioning one's self under the will of God.
• To submit is to give permission.
• True submission is choosing to obey God's will.
• Obedience to the Law is forced obedience but the way of the Spirit is chosen obedience.

• Authority means source of power.
• Jesus is the Author of our faith and therefore the source of power in our lives.
• To believe in Jesus as Lord is to surrender one's will to His will so that He becomes the source of power in our lives and not self.
• To know Jesus as Lord is to submit to His authority.

The Lord also showed us that the natural reflects the spiritual and therefore our attitude towards authority in the natural reflects our attitude towards spiritual authority. Examples of authority are:

1. Parents and children. Col. 3:20; Eph. 6:1-3
2. Husband and wife. 1 Peter 3:1-7
3. Spiritual leaders and church. Heb. 3:17
4. Individuals and the law of the land. 1 Peter 2:13-19
5. The believer and the Word of God. James 1:22,23
6. The believer and the Lord. James 4:7; John 14:15; Rom. 8:14

We need to recognise that the way we treat the authorities in our lives demonstrates our attitude toward all authority, both natural and spiritual because God appoints authority in our lives! We also need to understand that true submission is unconditional. That means it is not based on whether the authority is perfect or whether the authority meets one's expectation of what a leader needs to be before one will submit to them. True submission means submitting unconditionally to God's appointed authority so that the believer can in turn exercise authority. It is only when we come under authority that we can exercise authority (Matthew 8:5-13; James 4:6,7)

If God doesn't reign in you, He won't reign through you!

The Lord is preparing us to be a habitation for His presence, power and love and we praise Him for teaching us His way to true revival! Hallelujah!

This Friday we will be celebrating Christ's victory and triumph over sin, death and the devil as we meet together to worship and reflect on the passion of Christ. The meeting is at 3pm at Treffpunkt Leben followed by "Kaffee und Kuchen."

We're also looking forward to our next New Life Celebration on the 6th of April at the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde Nord-West in Eschersheim where we will be baptising some new lives in Christ.

God is moving in Frankfurt and we're excited to support a wonderful project called Himmel über Frankfurt (www.himmelueberfrankfurt.de) that seeks to proclaim the Word of God on posters all over Frankfurt and to encourage the Body of Christ to join together to lift up the name of Jesus! We would like to encourage all who read this to come and join us on the 20th of September as we march through the streets of Frankfurt for Jesus!


Quote of the week:

"The more we are submitted to Jesus, the more of His authority can be expressed in what we say and do in His name." Colin Urquhart

__________

Walking in the Spirit

You are amazing, Jesus!

As the Lord takes us to the deep part of the River of Revival (Ezekiel 47:5) He is showing us how to walk in the Spirit. We are learning that as born-again believers, born of God (John 3:3; 1 John 5:1), we are in this world but not of this world; we are in the body/flesh but not of the body/flesh (John 17:14-19; Gal. 2:20; 2Cor. 4:16-5:10; 1 Peter 1:13). Therefore, having been set free from the power and influence of the world, the flesh and the devil, the believer has the freedom to choose life or death; a life according to the flesh and the world or the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:5,12-14). The Lord is showing us that we need to do 3 things if we are to walk in the Spirit and grow in Him.

1. Position. We need to position ourselves so that we are free to make right choices.
2. Deny self. We need to recognise the will of self and the flesh and not give in to its desires.
3. Follow. We need to discern the Holy Spirit's will and follow Him.

By exercising PDF (positioning oneself, denying self and following the Holy Spirit), we will practice the presence of God as we continuously fix our minds on what the Spirit desires. This abiding in the Spirit and learning to yield to Him helps the believer not only to grow in the Spirit but also to release the presence and power of God. Hallelujah!

Yesterday we had another wonderful opportunity to feed the poor and to bring the Kingdom of God into their lives. It is such a blessing to see people respond to God's presence and we are delighted that 2 more people gave their lives to Jesus yesterday and will be baptised at our next New Life Celebration on the 6 April! Glory to God!

We praise God for adding to our number but most of all we are thrilled with what God is doing in us and through us. He is truly taking us into the deep end in our worship and our walk with Him. Thank you Lord!


Quote of the week:

"This practice of the Presence of God is somewhat hard at the outset, yet pursued faithfully, it works imperceptibly within the soul most marvellous effects; it draws down God's grace abundantly, and leads the soul insensibly to the ever-present vision of God, loving and beloved, which is the most spiritual and most real, the most free and most life-giving manner of prayer." Brother Lawrence

__________

In the Deep

Praise the Lord!

God is leading us into the depths of the River of Revival! He is taking us to a place where we are learning to grow in Divine Capacity and to release the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. The Lord is revealing to us that if we are to grow in Divine Capacity, we cannot be vessels that just receive but we must be a people that both receive and release the fullness of the Kingdom. We therefore need to be vessels with holes in them to release what we are filled with. To be a hole-y people we need to be obedient. Obedience releases the Kingdom and presence of God.

Yesterday was awesome as we met with God and one another. The Lord is speaking to us about obedience and in particular He was showing us the power of secret obedience. In Matthew 6:1-24 we saw that God rewards secret obedience with His presence - our most precious reward! The Lord is challenging us to live a life of secret obedience in which we live for the Father's pleasure and not for the approval of man. The test of true faith and humility is the life of secret obedience. When we choose to live our lives to please the Father for the benefit of others and the glory of God, we will see the Kingdom of God revealed both in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Secret obedience is choosing to live a holy life and serving others even when no one is watching! Motivation is everything - if we live for man we will receive man's reward; if we live for Abba Father, we will receive God's reward!

Praise God that He has poured out His grace to enable us to release His presence, power and love for the benefit of others and for His glory alone! Hallelujah!

The Lord is blessing us richly with His presence and revelation. The children had an awesome time yesterday during children's ministry. They are learning to be true worshippers as Kingdom Kids! We praise God for anointed workers who release the children into the Lord's presence through their ministry!

God is challenging the whole church to make every effort to live lives as the habitation of God and not just to wait for the next visitation of God. The Lord is speaking to every age group about holiness and obedience and we praise God for where He is taking KLF.

These are truly exciting times and the Lord's heart is to revive His Church so that there will be an awakening in the world! It is time for the Church to rise up and release the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven through obedience and holiness. Glory to God!


Quote of the week:

"In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God's holiness to dwell in him and shine through him." Andrew Murray

__________