The Mission And Message Of CHRIST Part 1 of 3

The Spirit Of The Lord Is Upon Me!
By Raymond D. Sopp

Luke 4:17-21: "And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him (Jesus). And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.' And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'"

I believe the above passage of Scripture to be one of the most profound and pivotal passages in the New Testament. I can think of no other Scripture which so clearly and distinctly defines the objective of Jesus' life and ministry while He was with us. This was the reason God sent His only Son to die for us. This was the reason Jesus willingly sacrificed His life and suffered the excruciating pain of the cross. This was the reason Jesus left heaven. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were in one accord – in complete agreement, and with great tenacity, proceeded to accomplish this awe-inspiring objective.

This awe-inspiring objective was the controlling influence in Jesus' life. Everything Jesus said and did was motivated with this one objective in mind. Jesus' eyes always remained focused and fixed on this one objective. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, without measure -- with all power -- in order to equip Jesus to fulfill this one objective. Since this awe-inspiring objective necessitated the full attention and power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, would it not also be wise for us to give it our full attention? Let's take a closer look at this profound passage of Scripture.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me . . ." The word "anointed" in this quote from Scripture simply means to equip -- to furnish someone with the necessary equipment for the administration of the specified objective. From this quote we are also told that it's the Holy Spirit's job to do the equipping. This is extremely important to understand, because from this Scripture we get a very clear and distinct picture of the Holy Spirit's role in God's divine and awe-inspiring plan. We are made aware that the responsibilities of Jesus and Holy Spirit differ, i.e., Jesus becomes the sacrifice and the Holy Spirit supplies the power, but the objective remains the same. Which should be no surprise to us, as we know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always been one. Therefore, it is reasonable for us to come to the conclusion that the anointing -- the power, you and I receive from the Holy Spirit -- should also be focused on this same objective. In other words, the only reason we should be seeking and asking for the Holy Spirit to come upon us with power is so we can accomplish this same awe-inspiring objective, the proclamation of the gospel message.

Seeking to be anointed by the Holy Spirit with another objective, or with an agenda of our own creation, would not only be foolish, but would also set us up for deception. Satan would be happy to masquerade in the Holy Spirit's place with a myriad of signs, wonders, and other displays of power to keep us deceived and rendered useless in God's objective. Therefore, it becomes imperative for us to fully understand God's awe-inspiring objective, inasmuch as, God wants us also to become one with Him. John 17:22: "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one." Let's now begin to unveil God's awe-inspiring objective.


Join Pastor Monday thru Friday 6am and 12pm eastern on Morning Manna Conference (phone) Line 641-715-3300 conference code 499589# or listen to Pastor Harris 24 hours a 7days on our playback line 641-715-3412  code 499589# over 200 sermons archived (when the recording come on # gives most recent message or use reference 1 through 295) or email us your prayer request morningmannaministry@hotmail.com or call 617-792-0663

Morning Manna Ministries: THE POWER OF PRAYER !!

Morning Manna Ministries: THE POWER OF PRAYER !!: "'The great masters and teachers in Christian doctrine have always found in prayer their highest source of illumination. Not to go beyond the..."

Praise Radio and Glory Star Satellite on Saturdays from 7am to 9am eastern (The exact date in February to be announced). I am truly excited because through our union with Boston Praise Radio and Glory Star Satellite we will have internet global access, which will allow us to share the Power of God with listeners around the world.

THE POWER OF PRAYER !!

"The great masters and teachers in Christian doctrine have always found in prayer their highest source of illumination. Not to go beyond the limits of the English Church, it is recorded of Bishop Andrews that he spent five hours daily on his knees. The greatest practical resolves that have enriched and beautified human life in Christian times have been arrived at in prayer." - Canon Lindon


WHILE many private prayers, in the nature of things, must be short; while public prayers, as a rule, ought to be short and condensed; while there is ample room for and value put on ejaculatory prayer -- yet in our private communions with God time is a feature essential to its value. Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying. Prayer which is felt as a mighty force is the mediate or immediate product of much time spent with God. Our short prayers owe their point and efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them. The short prevailing prayer cannot be prayed by one who has not prevailed with God in a mightier struggle of long continuance. Jacob's victory of faith could not have been gained without that all-night wrestling. God's acquaintance is not made by pop calls. God does not bestow his gifts on the casual or hasty comers and goers. Much with God alone is the secret of knowing him and of influence with him. He yields to the persistency of a faith that knows him. He bestows his richest gifts upon those who declare their desire for and appreciation of those gifts by the constancy as well as earnestness of their importunity. Christ, who in this as well as other things is our Example, spent many whole nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had his habitual place to pray. Many long seasons of praying make up his history and character. Paul prayed day and night. It took time from very important interests for Daniel to pray three times a day. David's morning, noon, and night praying were doubtless on many occasions very protracted. While we have no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, yet the indications are that they consumed much time in prayer, and on some occasions long seasons of praying was their custom.


Join Pastor Monday thru Friday 6am and 12pm eastern on Morning Manna Conference (phone) Line 641-715-3300 conference code 499589# or listen to Pastor Harris 24 hours a 7days on our playback line 641-715-3412  code 499589# over 200 sermons archived (when the recording come on # gives most recent message or use reference 1 through 285) or email us your prayer request morningmannaministry@hotmail.com or call 617-792-0663

Prayer Changes Things !!!!!!!!

The Prayer God Will Hear

God is aware of everything we say and do. Not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without His knowing it (Matthew 10:29). Therefore when anyone prays to God, He is well aware of the words that are spoken. But does He really consider all the requests that are directed to Him?


Not always! Let the Bible explain.
First, let the Scriptures explain: "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2).
Jesus similarly explains: "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full" (Matthew 6:5, NIV).
What then must we do for God to hear our prayers?
Jesus continues: "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions [saying the same words over and over] as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words" (verses 6-7).
The Scriptures show that public prayers are appropriate in proper situations. But most of our prayers should be sincere, private conversations between just us and God.
God has promised to hear us if we sincerely approach Him in this manner, with an attitude of seeking to do His will and a willingness to allow His Word to guide and correct us. "For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil" (1 Peter 3:12).
God looks on our attitude, our heart (1 Samuel 16:7), rather than on our past sins. He can see the direction we want to go, and that is what is important to Him.
He expects us to have faith that He hears us and to trust His judgment. "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind" (James 1:6).
God is especially aware of our motives when we pray. If we sincerely want to do what is pleasing to Him and pray accordingly, He is delighted to hear us. He responds according to His judgment, according to what He knows is best for us.
Regrettably, not everyone prays from pure motives: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3). God does not even consider the requests of those who are interested only in satisfying their own desires but have no interest in pleasing Him.
God looks at our attitude. He knows why we ask, and He knows what is in our hearts.
Prayer is essential in our relationship with God. Therefore, we are told, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing [habitually], in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). When we pray in this attitude, God will hear us.


Join Pastor Monday thru Friday 6am and 12pm eastern on Morning Manna Conference (phone) Line 641-715-3300 conference code 499589# or listen to Pastor Harris 24 hours a 7days on our playback line 641-715-3412  code 499589# over 200 sermons archived (when the recording come on # gives most recent message or use reference 1 through 285) or email us your prayer request morningmannaministry@hotmail.com or 

IT'S TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE FOR CHRIST !!! 40 YRS LATER HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET !

Forty years later we listen again to these urgent words of choice.  Can it really be forty years?  The number of years evokes biblical images of wandering, of long years between escape and entry, between Exodus and the Promised Land.  The Mosaic character of Dr. King's ministry reminds us of another choice echoing through the ages:  "See, I have set before you today life and death, blessing and curses.  Choose life so that you and your descendents may live."  Near the end of his own prophetic ministry, Moses gathers the people following their forty year sojourn in the wilderness.  Milk and honey may lie beyond the river, over the mountain top, but here on this side of the Jordan there is the urgency of decision:  chaos or community, life or death, blessing or curse.
By the time King preached his sermon the civil rights movement had splintered over tactics and generational conflict in the face of the persistence of racism and the readiness of those in power to hand out partial rights without threatening their own privilege.  By that night in April, 1967 the anti-war movement was roiling across the land as the violence in Southeast Asia entered into its long final crescendo of death and deceit, a crescendo that sadly would take years rather than months.  From the elegant pulpit at Riverside Church King would embark on his last crusade organizing poor people into a campaign against poverty here and throughout the world, a campaign that would end among garbage workers in Memphis with the shots that rang out on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.  Racism, war, poverty.  Forty years later this unholy trinity remains our deepest shame and our highest calling, joined now perhaps by the recognition that life itself on this planet hangs in the balance.  Today, as then, we face the urgency of now.
Yet for forty years we have allowed ourselves the luxury of thinking we had time to respond.  Most of us have made our wilderness journey one of privilege and leisure where evangelical faith is often replaced by mere respectable religion.  The most popular president of these forty years was eulogized by this satirical lament:  "He borrowed from the future so he could live in the past."  Where is the urgency of now?  What would King see forty years beyond his own mountain top vision the night before his death? 
He would see Katrina, the Jena 6, the rush by almost every presidential candidate to demonize mostly Spanish speaking immigrants as the gravest of threats to our culture, our economy, and our security, the surreal but persistent media attacks on one of our own congregations – Trinity Church in Chicago – calling it racist in order to undermine the credibility of an African American candidate who happens to be one of its members.  He would see the readiness to torture innocent and guilty alike in part because they are Arab, and in all of this he would direct people of faith to the urgency of now. 
He would see the exaltation of violence enshrined in a doctrine of war that replaces last resort with preemptive assault, a crusade built on the fiction of weapons of mass destructions that justifies the sacrifice of its youth with words of mass deception, the human rights debacle of Guantanamo and the evil of Abu Ghraib, and he would tell us that all this points us to the urgency of now. 
He would see the scandal of the sub-prime mortgage debacle that lands so heavily on the poor, the number of children without health care growing steadily on the tide of veto-proof indifference, the fact that we listen mostly in vain for presidential debates to take seriously the question of poverty while Matthew's and Luke's beatitudes are turned on their head by candidates rushing to display their religious credentials:  "Blessed are you who are wealthy and even you who are middle class, privileged though insecure, for yours is the kingdom of God."  And through all of this he would points us to the urgency of now.  When will peace and poverty, racial prejudice and the future of the planet get on the ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, Florida and California?  Or will this presidential election, like so much of our public rhetoric, only be about more walls, more weapons, and more privilege for those already wealthy?

Morning Manna Ministries: To God be the GLORY !!

Morning Manna Ministries: To God be the GLORY !!: "Dear Family and Friends, Check out what is happening on the internet with Pastor D. Harris.Boston, Ma. Tune in every Saturday from 7 to..."

Praise Radio and Glory Star Satellite on Saturdays from 7am to 9am eastern . I am truly excited because through our union with Boston Praise Radio and Glory Star Satellite we will have internet global access, which will allow us to share the Power of God with listeners around the world.

To God be the GLORY !!

Dear Family and Friends, 
Check out what is happening on the internet with Pastor D. Harris.Boston, Ma. Tune in every Saturday from 7 to 9 A.M. It is world-wide. Join the chat line and meet and talk with new Christians; and for prayer request, simply sign in and make your requests known. 

This Saturday, the Prayer-line family is anticipating a message from Pastor Graham Lindsay from Edinburgh Scotland. I sincerely hope that you join Morning Manna in worship this day, the 19th of February, 2011. 
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