From the Desk of Steve Shultz:
Dear Elijah List and Elijah Streams friends!
Below is a great, FRESH WORD through Ben Peters.
Each day, we hand-pick the "best of the best" words for you.
Hey, here is a quick message from Jerame and Miranda Nelson for this end-of-the-year GIVING TIME.
Now is TRULY the VERY BEST TIME FOR YOU TO GIVE to receive a year-end Tax Receipt for 2018.
These are crucial days for us to raise money to fund this ministry into 2019.
Thanks so MUCH for your generosity.
If you would like to give to the ongoing work of this ministry you can donate online, or by postal mailing your donation to:
Elijah List Ministries
528 Ellsworth St. SW, Albany, OR 97321
Thank you and God bless you!
Steve and Derene Shultz, Founders
Elijah List Ministries
"Be Fruitful and Multiply"
Ben Peters, Lincoln, CA
I hear the Father crying out to those He has recreated in the Spirit with resurrection life. Once again His Spirit is brooding over His creation, even as He did over the earth, and as He did over the virgin Mary two thousand years ago. He is wanting to impregnate all who are willing with His precious seed—the seed that will produce His fruit. Yes, God is calling us once again to "BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY."
The Early Church and the Manifestation of the Holy Spirit
The early Church knew what it meant to be fruitful and multiply. They were full of the Holy Spirit and manifested both His fruit and His gifts. You can check it out in the first few chapters of the book of Acts. Every gift was manifested, but so was all the fruit. You can go down the list from Galatians 5:22-23 and see that they powerfully manifested unselfish agape love, off-the-charts radical joy, and the peace that passes all human understanding— even in the face of life and death persecution. All the other fruit manifested as well. They demonstrated long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
So, the early Church clearly manifested the Holy Spirit dynamic duo—fruit and gifts—in His preordained, double-barreled shotgun approach. The excitement from the first outpouring on the day of Pentecost attracted the multitudes, who were served God's agape love in a spontaneous message by Peter, resulting in the Church immediately multiplying from 120 to 3,000. It was also a multiplication of the joy of the Lord which became their strength to face the coming persecution. Then the dramatic healing of the crippled man at the temple gate increased the love, joy and peace, etc. throughout the city and region. The response was more multiplication, and thousands more came into the Kingdom. (Photo via Pixabay)
By chapter five of Acts, the Church had manifested incredible, unselfish agape love in the sharing of resources and the meeting of the needs of all the disciples. When the gift of knowledge revealed the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, the holy fear of God fell on everyone, seeing the fruit of sin and the power of the Holy Spirit among them. This stimulated the saints into the knowledge that God was truly moving in their midst, and the gift of faith came into operation as people brought multitudes—probably thousands—of sick and demonized people from Jerusalem and nearby cities. The result was that every single sick and demonized person was healed.
You can imagine the joy and excitement as... (continue reading)
