By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
CHEROKEE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH
Pastor Melton, taught, “We are hearing there is a good movement afoot to read the Book of Acts. It‘s my opinion, the book of Acts is not over. You and I, we are all called to ‘write,’ or even better, ‘to live out’ a new chapter every day within our own present generation and it should be a book of our testimony of Acts.
“The truth is, there is a God in Heaven, Father God, Who has sent The Holy Spirit, into the ‘living side’ (‘inside part’, the core) of each Christian believer. The Holy Spirit has been sent to come into us to live, as we have decided to invite Jesus into our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the One Who can do anything. He has been promised to us! He will ‘never leave or forsake us.’ Jesus is our Intercessor and High Priest.
“Reading in Luke 19:41-44, God speaks to us about the events of Palm Sunday. The people were waving palm branches and crying out ‘Hosanna!’ as Jesus rode into the city fulfilling prophecy, riding on an unbridled donkey. Jesus wept that day, because He knew Jerusalem was to become a besieged city. Instead of being able to rejoice over His Triumphal Entry, He knew what people had missed seeing and knowing and what was to have belonged to them during their time of His Visitation.
“Jesus prays, as we all must be praying, so we do not also miss ‘our time of His Visitation and our Inhabitation by the Holy Spirit’. Are you open to His teaching of you? Are you open to His teaching you new ways and new things?
“We’ve learned to walk with Jesus by walking in His Name. Have we also learned to walk with Him Hand-in-hand so we don’t miss a chance to talk with Him instead of just talking about Him? Don’t ever miss the chance to talk to Jesus. He’s our ‘All in All’.
“We, as Christians, now have the ultimate Teacher on the inside of us. He can teach each one, every day, every moment of the day, something new, right now. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. If we are open to His teaching, every moment of every day, He can teach us something new, so we can speak or do a new thing.
Pastor Melton, praying for all Cherokee, added, “I pray we do not miss our time of visitation or of inhabitation with the Holy Spirit.”
Pastor Melton revealed to us he had been in his own ‘class’ being taught by the Holy Spirit for the past few weeks. “I’ve been given the liberty to show these things to other Christians, since one of the greatest issues of the Church is this, ‘We have learned to walk in the Name of Jesus as Christians. Each of us should answer, Yes. But, how many of you realize that we have to go deeper than just walking in His Name, and start walking with and talking to Him? What He’s been showing and teaching me these last few weeks is that I don’t go walking by just His Name. I’ve been daily walking hand-in-Hand with Him. I know His Word, I know His Word backwards and forwards, but we all seem to have been missing the chance to talk to Jesus, because we’re busy talking about Him. If we would learn how to talk to and with Jesus rather than just talking about Him, He’d be able to tell us some things while we’re going along talking together.
“Recently, in reading the words of an interview given by a multi-multi millionaire, the millionaire was able to tell the interviewer, ‘Those same gifts that operate in the Church, now operate in me and I use them out in the world. The same God says, ‘make the business deal with this one,’ or ‘stay away from doing a business deal with that one.’ ‘Put in this much money, or take out that much money.’ And doing that, ‘the Holy Spirit has made me rich.’”
“The goal in of all this, however, is, not whether He makes you rich, or not, your goal is to be with Jesus,” added Pastor Melton. “In trying out a new thing, when I’m in my truck, I’m talking with the Lord. When I go to the bank, or when I go to the grocery store, or go down to the repair garage, I’m talking with the Lord. Are you visiting with Him, or living with Him?
