Surge19 | Prayer & Fasting Day 3
Pastor Andrew Owen
Dear eNews friends and church members,
Our God Is In Control
They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.Acts 2:42On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…Acts 20:7Every country on earth has 7 days in one week. None have 10, or 12 say.They may be democracies, communists, dictators, Islamic, Bengali or Baha’i, or completely secular. Regardless of their ideology, or religion, they are all governed by an order outside of their control.Historians tell us that the ancient Egyptians tried to make it a 10-day week, partly (or fully) in honouring their 10 principle gods. Which is probably why one of the first things God did when delivering Israel from Egypt (by judging their 10 principle gods) was to establish Israel’s calendar.The oldest record of this 7 day in one-week order being set and laid down, is the Genesis account of creation, God made it so, and no lesser god-inspired plan can change it.There are lots of articles written about this subject by atheistic philosophers and historians, and they conclude there is no sense to it, no stellar reason for it, other than 7 is a perfect number.God is a perfect God, who made things perfectly, in line and on time. All under His wonderful control, what was above was to be below, right here on earth.But we learn that a lesser god enticed a man who was God’s imager on earth to change allegiance, follow a new lord, submit to a new world order, which the Bible calls the order of sin and death.Ever since then, there’s been a fight for the planet. But God determined that it will be as above so below, so He sent Jesus, and through His obedience recreated man in His own image, we are born again, to be God’s imagers, bring in His order, so we pray as above so below in the Lord’s prayer.I say all of this, and point out the above verses, because order in a week is important, it is a God thing much more than people realise.God created, but this lesser god Satan, wants to destroy that creation and all godly order.Setting time aside to honour God is important, fellowship is important. Satan is a god of disorder, dishonour, disease, disturbance, distraction. In fact, ‘dis’ was the Roman god of the underworld.There is no doubt that some of us need breakthroughs because there are some ‘dis’s’ in our lives.The early church gathered very quickly on the first day of the week. It was already their practice by Acts 20. This was resurrection day. They ordered their week FOR breakthroughs.If we want breakthroughs, we must put order back in our week, priority back in our time. It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to meet with our church family today, and Jesus said He would be there as we gather. Even in a more significant way than when we are alone.(Where two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst - Matthew 18:20)I am convinced that if we, you, us want breakthroughs, we need to be together, realign our times and priorities, join the church in prayer, start our week with our God in control, not the lesser god setting the agenda.I have never yet seen any businessman who works all hours, compromises his God time, family time or church time do well. They always crash and burn in one area or another.And there are others, who realise that the first sign of success, is not a huge salary, but that they can control their own time and priorities and be where it counts and matters. They’ve stopped being someone else’s slave.No doubt - you may well want to raise some questions from this eNews, if so, do get in touch. Or/and hear more about as above so below next week at Surge - don’t miss it.Next Sunday we are there at the Armadillo, and we have many free tickets for friends that you wish to bring in for Sunday church next week - it will be awesome.Enjoy this special day.Breakthrough is coming!Andrew[yotuwp type="videos" id="AaA8mIJ-TaA" ]
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