Digging into the word, and expository preaching

"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16)

The Lord has been speaking to me about being "trained in righteouness", which I understand to mean knowing the Word of God.  I firmly believe that this is one of the prerequisites of growing in the prophetic. To me, the preciousness of the prophetic is the value of the rhema word, the word in season, but rhema words are from the logos word, the whole counsel of God.

In this day, there is also so much "mixture" / "syncretism" in the teaching out there, especially in the Charismatic. Truth is mixed with error, wheat with tares. Those of us who move in the Spirit must be especially cognizant of the importance of being schooled in truth, to be like Bereans, because those who worship God must "worship in spirit and truth". We need to be anchored in the Word because in the last days, deception will increase, and it will be subtle.

In Matthew 24, when Jesus speaks of the End Times, he says one of the signs will be that "false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect".

We need to be careful about this because God has warned "my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6)

So I am praying for the discipline to dig in and to really know the Word of God, not just topically, but in its context. To be trained in a way so I can "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15).

On this note, I really appreciate expository preaching, in which the Word is taught chapter by chapter, so it is not taken out of context/ distorted to suit one's whim. There are not many good expository teachers I know - since many preachers teach topically - but here are three who are excellent, and whose material is freely available on the Internet - David Pawson, Lance Lambert and Singapore's own Aw Swee Eng :)

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (2 Tim 2:15)

Our God (Aaron Schweinberg)

Stumbled upon Aaron Schweinberg accidentally while buying Christian music from the itunes store. Really like his voice and his piano playing! What incredible anointed worship :)

Friendship with God (Bill Johnson)

I love this preaching by Bill Johnson. Servants are task-oriented, friends/ lovers know the heart of God, and do out of relationship.

The end of this sermon also packs a punch. It reminds us that whatever gifting God has put in us, without the Spirit of God on it, we won't get very far...

Says Bill: "I don't care if you can sing, if you can lead, if you can preach, doesn't matter what you can do, you're a businessman, a schoolteacher, doesn't make any difference to me. That gift is like a sail on a boat, it's useless without wind.

We need the breath of God on who he's made us to be. There has to be the supernatural element with whatever it is that God has given us to do. The breath of the Almighty God is what empowers that which we can do. The horse is prepared for the day of battle but the victory belongs to the Lord.

We take that which is natural, we get everything in order, we've done what we know to do in the natural, then we anticipate the breath of God to come to make that which is natural, supernatural, and then we give Him all the glory for it. And then just be thankful that he let us be in the room."

Wow. Awesome preaching!

We Wait For You (Shekinah Glory)