REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
CHEROKEE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH
Read and study Acts 9:1-22 (KJV)
(“Damascus, Syria, was about 150 miles north of Jerusalem. Several trade routes were linked there to other cities throughout the Roman world and Saul/Paul probably hoped to stamp out Christianity there and could prevent them from spreading to other areas. Then he discovered God had other plans for him. He saw the risen Christ Himself. True conversion comes from a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.” NLT Study Bible.”)
“The Church (Pentecostal) today seems to have found that in many respects, reverence, healing, and the Fear of God has gone. The Church has grown cold. (Exercise prayer.)
“Saul was a very learned man, a master of the Word. Holding onto the Old way, have any of you ever murdered other Christians? Blasphemed the Name of God? Sought to find them to put them to death? Saul did. However, after Jesus apprehended him on the way to Damascus and reaching him with a better message, God allowed him to write 2/3 of the New Testament. Jesus told him not to kick against the pricks.
“In verse 6 there could be much trembling in following the Law—like the cut of your hair, shoes, but we are to be like Jesus—let some things go. Saul was blinded by the Glory for three days—to show him he had been blind for a long time.
“Ananias—because God sent him to Saul—was to remove the scales from his eyes. In verse 15, we are told, Saul was a chosen vessel to carry His Presence. We are told as the Church, that we are chosen as vessels to present Him before Gentiles, kings, and others—for them to see more clearly.
“In the early Church, as they began to scatter out into the world because of the persecution, they had all been filled with the Holy Ghost. They, and we also, are to receive the Holy Ghost. Saul, who became Paul, immediately began preaching to sick people. He was delivered to tell (empowered to) by the Holy Ghost, even as Saul, the one, who had asked, ‘Lord, who are you?’
“In verse 21, all were amazed as he taught; Paul knew how to pray—prayed in the Name of Jesus. He now knew Jesus and day after day, he began to strengthen daily. (He exercised it! Practiced!)
“Receive the Holy Ghost and increase! Say something! Accept Him as ‘my Healer’ by the baptism in the Holy Ghost, to receive Him; you can take Him into your heart. Learn how to increase in speaking, in knowledge, in healing, in deliverance. Take Him as your Healer. One person we knew, even though being near death, just started laughing, as she told us, “The devil thinks I’m sick, but I’m not.” She kept laughing at the devil, kept it up for two weeks and came away fully healed.
“My people perish.” Learn to exercise your faith in Him. “He’s my caregiver and caretaker.” Let God have control—He said to give Him everything. None of us want calamity to strike, but it can come. We are to increase in strength! We must increase in strength.
“Lord, take me as far as I desire to go. I want to go all the way—I cannot love my life– it is now Yours.” Amen.
“Say to Him, ‘I’m going to give you my life.’
“I am going to give you the secret to operating ‘mightily.’ Increase with every decision, every time you deny selfish desires—television watching, eating—exercise His program, at His Table, His desire.
“See the potential? A pastor is never called to be a physical therapist—exercise for yourself. We have traded the Spirit of God, for the man of God and a Book—don’t we need miracles? Early Christians did not even have a Bible! An order of service—we are weak, lethargic, and powerless without the Holy Ghost. There is no church without God!
“When you exercise, working your triceps, glutes, trying to get six-packs, you have to decide for yourself, to work them.
“David and Samuel, as David was to be the next king of Israel, God chose David with the oil of the anointing flowing out from Samuel’s horn on to David. David was always writing and singing songs to the Lord as he watched over his father’s sheep—he would ‘love’ on God. David killed his ten thousands, and couldn’t miss increasing in strength. He needed only a minute—and the Lord—and he picked up five stones—you see Goliath also had four brothers! He could say to his own brothers, “I’m stronger than I look.”
