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On Eagle's Wings

On Eagle's Wings

Monthly Archives: Jul 2013

Who to believe?

31 Wed Jul 2013

Posted by michael4jesus in New age & Demons

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balance
After looking at the ABC report last night, I think that the biggest question for the average person out there is who or what to believe nowadays?!

On one hand we have the professionals world and on the other we have the Church.

The professional world claim that they have all the answers, yet one need only visit a psychiatric hospital to see that this is not the case. The reality is that one of the highest rate of mental illness and suicide occurs with psychiatrists themselves. There are of course many people who have been helped by psychiatry also and this too can be seen as God’s blessing.

On the other hand, we need only visit a church and observe all the broken people there to see that the Church does not have all the answers either, and many church leaders suffer greatly from mental illness also. However within the Church we do find some people who have experienced the power of God in there own lives in a very personal way. Many of these people (including myself) have been transformed by God in a way that science cannot understand.

And so where is the middle ground? Well I believe that there is no magic solution to fix suffering either in the professional world or in the Church. In many cases the professional world cuts out the spiritual side to the human person and God’s power to heal while it could be argued that some churches cut out the professional input relying too much on direct intervention from God, the ‘pray it away’ mentality.

It appears that the solution is in coming to a deeper level of understanding of the human person, spirit, mind and body and all of us working and cooperating together.

There is no reason to be afraid of spirituality, in fact we should be more afraid of not understanding it because it affects us all! The more we understand our bodies the more we can look after them, similarly with our minds, and the same goes for our spirits. Then and only then can we become really ‘whole’!

I pray for the day that the professional world will integrate spirituality into their formation. I also pray for a greater formation within the Church in this area. In the meantime, be careful who you go to if you need help and whose advice you listen to.

Come Lord Jesus.

Michael

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

17 Wed Jul 2013

Posted by michael4jesus in Holy Spirit & Prayer

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This is a summary and reflection on a book I read called “Fanning the Flame”. In it most of you probably won’t find anythign new, but it’s always good to be reminded of old stuff!!

Aim of Document: Explain the role of the Charismatic Renewal in today’s church highlighting the positive effects on evangelization and growth. It is aimed at the bishops and the pastoral leaders of today’s church.

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit


What is it?

– An awakening of the gifts of the Holy Spirit received at baptism
– It is not a second baptism
– It Includes sanctification and charismatic gifts

Life with the Holy Spirit

The solution to the problems in today’s church lies in a deep personal conversion to Christ, living more fully of the Holy Spirit. We must become docile instruments of the Holy Spirit. It is He that will give new life to the church.

Such conversions lead to faith hope and charity, to a living faith and not just human principles. Gifts bestowed on the church by the Holy Spirit include

– Adoration
– Praise
– Prayer
– Contemplation
– Docility to the spirit, faith in God also helping us in day-to-day affairs.
– Zeal for the gospel
– Respect for the authority of the church
– Increase in use of reconciliation

Leading to people becoming actively involved in the church

– Renewal of the ministry of healing (sacramental and charismatic)
– Families transformed into communities of grace
– Empowerment of the ministry of priests
– Upsurge of committed and effective evangelists
– Increased services to the church, religious, priests and deacons, laity.

And in the parishes to

– Vibrant liturgy
– Vibrant parish members, reaching out to the inactive, to the poor
– Charisms of the Holy Spirit
– Spiritual formation, prayer charisms etc

And also charismatic gifts such as

– Tongues
– Prophecy
– Knowledge
– Healing
– Deliverance
– Etc.

And also changes our personal prayer life through

– Union with others in a bond of love
– Cry to God as ‘abba, father’ and to Jesus as Lord
– Insight into the mysteries of God and taste for the word of God
– Walking in the joy of the Spirit
– Walking in the power of the Spirit
– Fruits of the Holy Spirit
– Boldness to witness even to death

“Life in the Holy Spirit is not one spirituality among others in the church. It is the unique spirituality of the church.”

Why is it necessary?
For the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives we must co-operate with its motions. Due to our sinful nature sometimes we quench the spirit, choosing to do our own will and so we need to ‘rekindle’ the Spirit continuously.

This can especially be the case when we are baptised as children; quite often the gifts received at baptism are lying dormant, sleeping. The ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ reawakens these gifts bringing them to life.

For who is it?

– For all baptised Christians. It is not refined simply to the charismatic renewal.
– For liberal, conservative and all movements.
– For people of all ages and backgrounds, laity, priest, bishops.

Where is it in the bible?

‘Repent and be baptised….in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:38)

All four gospels speak of Jesus who ‘baptises with the Holy Spirit’

Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the history of the church

Charisms have always been part of Christianity
Baptism in the Holy Spirit was also known as ‘ Christian Initiation’ in the early church
Historically it was a normative part of the life of the church with the sacraments

– Early doctors of the church
– Tertullian
– Origen
– Hilary of Poitiers
– Cyril of Jerusalem

Openness to charisms to all the people in the church; healing, prophecy, tongues, wisdom etc.

The present church is like a woman who has fallen from her former prosperous days. In many respects she retains only the tokens of that ancient prosperity.

Life without the Holy Spirit

Without the Holy Spirit the christian community becomes weak and vulnerable against the pressure of the secular world. In the church this leads to :

– Disintegration of family life
– Decrease in priestly vocations
– Wasteful consumption
– Neglect of the poor

Such a weakened community cannot pass on the faith nor build up the church.

Before a change is the structures of the church comes about, we Christians need to undergo a conversion of heart.


Problems

Where we have men we have sin and the charismatic renewal has not been without some problems such as:
– Fundamentalism
– Authoritarianism
– Faulty discernment
– People leaving the church
– Misguided ecumenism

However let us be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater! The Spirit has touched thousands of people. The solution to these problems is a deeper personal conversion to Jesus in order to live more fully of the Holy Spirit.

How To Go forward

Baptism in the Spirit and life in the Spirit is needed for the entire church; religious orders, universities, parishes etc. in order to create vibrant communities of God’s love

We have seen the numerous benefits from baptism in the Holy Spirit and also some of the problems. The church needs to walk in the Spirit, opening to His wonderful gifts in love and holy prudence.

Interested?  Ask somebody filled with the Spirit to pray with you ! Happy to help if I can!

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Pray for our leaders

15 Mon Jul 2013

Posted by michael4jesus in All Posts, Holy Spirit & Prayer

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Today the Lord has put it on my heart to share this experience. While part of me is reluctant to do so, I know that I must follow Jesus. Firslty let me say that I have an immense love for the Church and especially for the priesthood, that God has been abundantly merciful to me and that it is not to condemn, but rather to convict and seek prayer for those mostly in need that I am even writing this.

Recently I have been asking Jesus about the confusion in today’s Church, about the many different interpretations of Scripture, about the ignorance of spirituality and prayer in so many places and churches. This is some of what he has replied:

Praying about this confusion, I sense in my heart the immense love and mercy in the heart of Jesus for the simple ordinary people who are trying their best to follow Him in the midst of all this confusion! Mistakes can happen, but when they do, God not only looks at the acts committed but he looks also at the circumstances around the act. In the current context of today’s church, this means that he looks with enormous mercy! (of which myself have been a beneficiary). There is no limit to his mercy, one just has to ask with a SINCERE CONTRITE heart.

Who is responsible for this confusion I asked? He replied by telling me that it is those chosen by Jesus himself to guide his flock who ultimatley will be brought to call, if not in this life then in the next. You see, if we visited a school and the students were particularly poor at say mathematics due to a bad teacher, it would be unfair of us to come down harshly on the students, but rather ask the teacher some serious questions!

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Jesus went on to remind me that these leaders also have souls and some play Russian roulette with their own salvation, and also the salvation of their congregations.

The Lord then asked me to consider purgatory and I was prompted in the spirit to ask him what souls were in the most need of prayer. To my shock, Jesus replied that it is the souls of many religious, and not thieves and murderers as I was expecting.

I then felt the immense love of Jesus for these souls, his sadness and desire for them to reach happiness in heaven. He explained how in many cases they have treated religious life like a worldly institution only interested in climbing up the ladder of success. How they have neglected prayer, the spiritual life, neglected the sacraments and especially the administration of the sacraments, how they by both words and example have sent thousands and thousands of souls on the path to perdition rather than salvation not to mention their legacies that live on in the form of books and all sorts of heretical theologies.

But furthermore, because so often they have applauded one another for these same books and speeches, they now lie in the lowest place in purgatory with almost nobody to pray for them, their fellow colleagues blindly believing them to be in heaven!

It would be funny if it was not so serious, ‘caught in thier own craftiness’. The Lord then allowed me to see and feel their unspeakable torment and has put it on my heart to pray for them. Only that I was sustained by a supernatural grace I would not have been able to stand this vision, and even now while I write, I feel that I should fall on my knees and once again start praying for these poor souls who despite their many sins, are still immensely dear and loved by Jesus. Jesus also reminded me that not all souls make it even to here, but the souls that do go to hell, go of their own free will. Jesus died to save us all, but such is his immense respect for free will, he won’t force salvation itself on any one of us!

Please join me in praying for these souls, ‘but for the grace of God go I’

Yours in Jesus

Michael

All to Jesus

12 Fri Jul 2013

Posted by michael4jesus in Healing

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A short poem that came to me yesterday during the living waters course…..written from the point of view of my spirit gazing at God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.Image

Jesus my Lord, Jesus my joy,
Here is Michael, your little boy
This world is hard, this world is tough,
Without you, life, it’d be too rough

When my heart is heavy, burdened with weight,
I look to you Jesus, I listen, I wait.
Your love eternal, is all that lasts
The probems, they go, with your love, so fast.

So I gaze to the heavens, Jesus your boy
My spirit stays filled with your lasting joy
Do not worry my soul. my body, alas,
Eternity will bring you peace that lasts

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