Divine Quickening
Message delivered by Madame Cormella Etongwe at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mount Zion Parish on the occasion of the Women’s Anniversary. (Thursday 5th June 2008)
Theme: HOLY SPIRIT QUICKEN ME
Text: ROMANS 8:11
Introduction: To be able to talk about the topic “Divine quickening”, we have to first of all look at the key words Divine and Quickening.
Divine signifies that which is of God, while quickening means giving life to that which is dead, or activating that which is dormant.
In other words if we say Holy Spirit quicken me, we are asking the Holy Spirit to activate us with His life that is, to pour His life in us so that He will be in control of our lives.
In our text Romans 8:11 which says “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you”, an interesting word there is “Mortal” which has the following meanings subjected to death, having a limited life span, or something that will have an end.
Jesus Christ came to show us an example, He is the head and we are the body. The Bible makes us to understand in Romans 8:11 that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken our mortal bodies, by this we understand that, since Christ is the head and we are the body, a different Spirit cannot animate the head and another Spirit the body. If then the same Spirit animates us, then our behavior should be the same as Christ’s and our results should be the same. Indeed, Jesus promised us greater results than His. (John 14:12)
In this study, we are going to examine two outlines; firstly we are going to see how the quickening makes the difference and secondly, we will examine how one can get divinely quickened.
1. THE DIVINE QUICKENING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
When the Holy Spirit quickens you, He gives you supernatural abilities to do things that were impossible for you to do naturally. No one will be able to limit you. In Acts 3:6-7, Peter and John were able to heal the lame man at the beautiful gate because they had just been quickened in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Furthermore, the quickening gives us supernatural understanding of things that cannot be understood with the carnal mind or human reasoning. We see this in I Corinthians 2:12 which say “Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”. We also see this supernatural understanding in the book of Daniel 5, when the hand writing appeared on the wall during King Belshazzar’s banquet, this perplexed the king and his entourage but the queen mother recounted to the king that Daniel had handled such situations in the past and described him as one who had the spirit of the gods in him, and he alone could decipher the handwriting because of the quickening of the Spirit of God upon his life.
The quickening of the Holy Spirit brings life and hope in dead and hopeless situations. This can be seen in the case of the valley of dry bones, when the hope of Israel was lost, the Lord by His Spirit through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:1-10, quickened the dry bones by bringing order in the arrangement of the bones, they took their proper places, life came into them and they became a great army. Hence in Ezekiel 37:14 the Lord concludes “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it.” No matter the confusion that may appear to be in any area of our lives, the quickening of the Holy Ghost is able to rearrange it in Jesus name.
The quickening Spirit also brings about boldness. In Acts 4:29-31, after the apostles had healed the lame man in Acts 3 and they had preached to the people, they were threatened by the Sanhedrin and the teachers of he law not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus.The disciples met together and prayed and the place where they were shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and were quickened to preach the word of God with boldness. We can equally mention the case of Peter in the Gospels. He was a fearful man so much so that he denied Jesus thrice but after the quickening, at Pentecost, he was able to preach boldly before a crowd and three thousand men gave their lives to the Lord. No matter how timid you may be when it comes to preaching the gospel, depend on God’s Spirit for quickening to be able to overcome that fear and fulfil the great commission.
When the quickening power of God is upon you, no one will be able to limit you; in Judges 14:14, we see that even though Samson’s people tied him up and delivered him to his enemies because they were afraid to be killed, he was able to liberate himself and destroy his enemies because the quickening Spirit of God came upon him. That same Spirit is available for us to make a difference in our lives today be it spiritually, materially, financially, in our businesses, careers, education and in whatsoever we are engaged in. we have the supernatural abilities through the quickening power of the Holy Spirit to make a difference in our day.
The quickening brings about expansion. You will be able to be on top and not at the bottom. You will be able to expand without any limitations because God is not limited and we have His nature. Witches and demonic powers will not be able to put us in a bottle or whatsoever container and keep us there because every wall of limitation will be broken by this quickening power as was the case of the wall of Jericho. The quickening power is needed to bring order when disorder sets in. in Acts 6:3 when discontentment rose among the brethren on how the Greek widows were neglected, Peter and the other leading apostles demanded that men filled with the Holy Spirit be selected to take care of these domestic issues. Hence we see that this situation also applies to us in cases where we are to deal with disorder in our houses/ society, stubborn children, in-laws and even our spouses, the quickening of God will give us the necessary wisdom to handle these things properly.
The quickening brings about obedience. In Ezekiel 36:27 God promises that He will put His Spirit in us and cause us to walk according to His statues. It is impossible to be rebellious when we are quickened. When we read further in Ezekiel 36, we notice that obedience will bring about abundant blessings.
The quickening of the Holy Ghost is able to transform our lives and even our relationships in every area and at all levels so it is an important and fundamental aspect of Christianity we should not neglect.
2. HOW TO GET DIVINELY QUICKENED
In order to enjoy this quickening, we have to fulfil the following conditions these may not be all but they are some of the fundamental conditions.
I. You must be born again. You must be His for Him to be able to quicken you, because the Bible says only those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
II. Yield yourself to the Holy Spirit. The Word of God says in Acts 1:8 that you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you and then you shall be witnesses. Only the Holy Spirit can quicken, so allow Him to baptize you and seek for constant refilling.
III. Be humble and submit yourself to God according to I Peter 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time”. Do not rely on past glories.
IV. Study, meditate and believe the word of God and confess it no matter what you are going through, because the Just shall live by faith and it is written in Hebrews that we should hold fast to our confession for He who has promised is faithful.
V. Walk in complete obedience.
CONCLUSION
God has called us to make a difference in our generation, and also to be the light. This is only possible by the divine quickening. Really, we need divine quickening to be successful in not only spiritual things like prayer, fellowshipping, our ministries etc, but also in personal and societal issues like; businesses, careers, health, finance to name a few, as well as make a tremendous impact in our surroundings (our neighbourhood, offices, homes etc) and enable the will of God to prevail wherever we are.
Divine signifies that which is of God, while quickening means giving life to that which is dead, or activating that which is dormant.
In other words if we say Holy Spirit quicken me, we are asking the Holy Spirit to activate us with His life that is, to pour His life in us so that He will be in control of our lives.
In our text Romans 8:11 which says “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you”, an interesting word there is “Mortal” which has the following meanings subjected to death, having a limited life span, or something that will have an end.
Jesus Christ came to show us an example, He is the head and we are the body. The Bible makes us to understand in Romans 8:11 that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken our mortal bodies, by this we understand that, since Christ is the head and we are the body, a different Spirit cannot animate the head and another Spirit the body. If then the same Spirit animates us, then our behavior should be the same as Christ’s and our results should be the same. Indeed, Jesus promised us greater results than His. (John 14:12)
In this study, we are going to examine two outlines; firstly we are going to see how the quickening makes the difference and secondly, we will examine how one can get divinely quickened.
1. THE DIVINE QUICKENING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
When the Holy Spirit quickens you, He gives you supernatural abilities to do things that were impossible for you to do naturally. No one will be able to limit you. In Acts 3:6-7, Peter and John were able to heal the lame man at the beautiful gate because they had just been quickened in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Furthermore, the quickening gives us supernatural understanding of things that cannot be understood with the carnal mind or human reasoning. We see this in I Corinthians 2:12 which say “Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”. We also see this supernatural understanding in the book of Daniel 5, when the hand writing appeared on the wall during King Belshazzar’s banquet, this perplexed the king and his entourage but the queen mother recounted to the king that Daniel had handled such situations in the past and described him as one who had the spirit of the gods in him, and he alone could decipher the handwriting because of the quickening of the Spirit of God upon his life.
The quickening of the Holy Spirit brings life and hope in dead and hopeless situations. This can be seen in the case of the valley of dry bones, when the hope of Israel was lost, the Lord by His Spirit through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:1-10, quickened the dry bones by bringing order in the arrangement of the bones, they took their proper places, life came into them and they became a great army. Hence in Ezekiel 37:14 the Lord concludes “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it.” No matter the confusion that may appear to be in any area of our lives, the quickening of the Holy Ghost is able to rearrange it in Jesus name.
The quickening Spirit also brings about boldness. In Acts 4:29-31, after the apostles had healed the lame man in Acts 3 and they had preached to the people, they were threatened by the Sanhedrin and the teachers of he law not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus.The disciples met together and prayed and the place where they were shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and were quickened to preach the word of God with boldness. We can equally mention the case of Peter in the Gospels. He was a fearful man so much so that he denied Jesus thrice but after the quickening, at Pentecost, he was able to preach boldly before a crowd and three thousand men gave their lives to the Lord. No matter how timid you may be when it comes to preaching the gospel, depend on God’s Spirit for quickening to be able to overcome that fear and fulfil the great commission.
When the quickening power of God is upon you, no one will be able to limit you; in Judges 14:14, we see that even though Samson’s people tied him up and delivered him to his enemies because they were afraid to be killed, he was able to liberate himself and destroy his enemies because the quickening Spirit of God came upon him. That same Spirit is available for us to make a difference in our lives today be it spiritually, materially, financially, in our businesses, careers, education and in whatsoever we are engaged in. we have the supernatural abilities through the quickening power of the Holy Spirit to make a difference in our day.
The quickening brings about expansion. You will be able to be on top and not at the bottom. You will be able to expand without any limitations because God is not limited and we have His nature. Witches and demonic powers will not be able to put us in a bottle or whatsoever container and keep us there because every wall of limitation will be broken by this quickening power as was the case of the wall of Jericho. The quickening power is needed to bring order when disorder sets in. in Acts 6:3 when discontentment rose among the brethren on how the Greek widows were neglected, Peter and the other leading apostles demanded that men filled with the Holy Spirit be selected to take care of these domestic issues. Hence we see that this situation also applies to us in cases where we are to deal with disorder in our houses/ society, stubborn children, in-laws and even our spouses, the quickening of God will give us the necessary wisdom to handle these things properly.
The quickening brings about obedience. In Ezekiel 36:27 God promises that He will put His Spirit in us and cause us to walk according to His statues. It is impossible to be rebellious when we are quickened. When we read further in Ezekiel 36, we notice that obedience will bring about abundant blessings.
The quickening of the Holy Ghost is able to transform our lives and even our relationships in every area and at all levels so it is an important and fundamental aspect of Christianity we should not neglect.
2. HOW TO GET DIVINELY QUICKENED
In order to enjoy this quickening, we have to fulfil the following conditions these may not be all but they are some of the fundamental conditions.
I. You must be born again. You must be His for Him to be able to quicken you, because the Bible says only those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
II. Yield yourself to the Holy Spirit. The Word of God says in Acts 1:8 that you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you and then you shall be witnesses. Only the Holy Spirit can quicken, so allow Him to baptize you and seek for constant refilling.
III. Be humble and submit yourself to God according to I Peter 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time”. Do not rely on past glories.
IV. Study, meditate and believe the word of God and confess it no matter what you are going through, because the Just shall live by faith and it is written in Hebrews that we should hold fast to our confession for He who has promised is faithful.
V. Walk in complete obedience.
CONCLUSION
God has called us to make a difference in our generation, and also to be the light. This is only possible by the divine quickening. Really, we need divine quickening to be successful in not only spiritual things like prayer, fellowshipping, our ministries etc, but also in personal and societal issues like; businesses, careers, health, finance to name a few, as well as make a tremendous impact in our surroundings (our neighbourhood, offices, homes etc) and enable the will of God to prevail wherever we are.
posted by REDEEM ZION @ 12:42 AM
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