For a little over three years me and my family have been living on Maui, Hawaii, and it has been an amazing experience (which of course could mean a lot of things). But even though we live in Hawaii, we don’t really experience paradise every day, because we are not tourists on vacation.
One thing that is really interesting, coming from Brazil, is to understand the differences in the many cultures here in the Islands. This morning, listening to the radio we started laughing about the local jokes, but it only took three years for us to understand these cultures enough to get it and laugh!
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In our lives we do a lot of things that we are not really proud of, but as I was reading the most recent message from my spiritual father, Gary Hargrave, an amazing picture of Salvation came to me. I hope I can help you to see what I saw:
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“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NAS)
I thought of picking up again the thread from the last blog. I kept thinking that we always think we know everything, you see that with children when you try to introduce some new food, a vegetable for instance, and at first they may say they don’t like that, but then sometimes with time they learn to like the new. I remember saying that “I don’t like this” and my mother would say “how do you know you don’t like this if you have never tried before?”
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We at Hale O Kāula are always looking to be more than a church. We are determined to be a family and promote family relationships, where all ages are part of creating the whole of the family. This is exactly the same as how our natural families function! We find a balance of what everyone needs to do, from the babies to the older ones.
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“…but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ” (1 Corinthians 13:10, NAS)
Last week as I was talking to my daughter the Lord started talking to me about how life is one big and long transition. When you think you have things figured out, there comes the next change in our lives!
Isn’t it true, a baby is born and is already crying because of the change of environment, the body functions also are not always comfortable, the baby has to learn how to feed and digest the milk, and then when the baby finally reaches a place of balance it is time to be weaned! And then come school, a brother or a sister, different foods and the changes that come with time and growth never stop.
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“‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.’” (Revelation 3:20, NAS)
As I read this verse, I was thinking that it is not enough to have God standing at the door and knocking. When He is speaking and I hear His voice, it is still up to me to take the action of opening the door to let Him in. Without the corresponding action as a result of hearing the Word, nothing happens.
If you hear His voice, open the door!
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Last year we had an amazing time when Gary and Marilyn Hargrave and several ministries of the Apostolic Company spent a few days with us on Maui. We had more than just a visit; we had a School of Prophets with a tremendous flow of the word and also a lot of fun together. After almost three years working on
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“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, NAS)
In a recent message, Gary Hargrave used this scripture and what really stood out to me is that there are two things that need to happen when we hear a Word. First, we need to get over the barrier of receiving a Word through a human vessel, and second we also have to believe in that word for it to work in us.
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I have always heard this but never really stopped to think about this to actually understand the principle behind this blessing: “‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35, NAS)
I read this verse last week, and did a little study on it, but instead of applying it to material things, I actually was thinking about how much it is more blessed to give forgiveness than to receive forgiveness. Somehow the Holy Spirit led me to read Luke 6 in connection with this verse, especially verses 30-38.
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“and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. ” (Ephesians 3:19, NAS)
I have been living in this verse for a while now and there are two things that come to my mind: one is that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge, which means that I can’t understand how much He loves me, and two is that it is His plan for us to be filled up to all the fullness of God.
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And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2, NAS)
This is a verse that I have read and heard so many times in my life, but it is interesting to take a closer look in the word transformed and find the meaning in the Greek. It is also interesting to read this verse in other translations, like for instance the New Living Translation:
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As a father it is always a challenge to correct my daughters; I spend a lot of time thinking about the heart behind teaching and correction and how it is perceived. Of course when you are being corrected it is hard and you have a lot of reactions to it, but on the other hand there is always a love and a purpose in God behind it. And this is why I came up with this definition of correction:
Correction is someone helping you get from A to B in the least amount of time.
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As a father I am always challenged when my daughters get sick. As they grow they get all the “normal” colds and bugs that all the kids do, right?
Recently I was taking care of one of them and she was having a hard time sleeping; it was very difficult for her to breathe because of this “normal” cold. And I thought: “If I could I would be sick in your place, I would not sleep so you could sleep, I could be in pain or suffering so you did not have to go through this.”
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Yesterday I woke up in the middle of the night, as it usually happens, and I started to think about all the things that we go through in our lives and how life is really just one big transition. And this is what I thought: “In a transition you have to embrace the new as much as you have to let go of the old.”
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Today, Debbie and I are in a transition between the Young Adults School of Prophets and meetings with all the pastors and ministries of The Living Word Fellowship. The 2010 Shiloh School of Prophets is complete, and it was a great time of seeking the Lord together. Now everyone is tired after such an intense time!
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