 | Teaching:
'Laying the Right Foundation Part 2' |
| Jesus Christ is Lord!
Andrew Shreeve Ministries
Partner Letter – April 2009
‘Bringing good tidings, publishing peace and salvation’
(Isaiah 52:7, Romans 10:15)
Sow a financial seed this month and partner with Andrew in proclaiming peace and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to all nations.
Seed Amount $...
| Contents
- Welcome
- Testimonies
- Resources
- Teaching – “Laying the Right Foundation – Part 2”
- Itinerary
| Welcome
| Hi from South East Asia. I have been in this region (seven nations) for the past nine months now. There are over 560 million people in the ten ASEAN nations. The people are generally very lovely, and we are working towards helping them experience God’s eternal life, PLUS the Lord’s temporal ‘shalom’ blessings of prosperity, healing, safety, wisdom, godly leadership, peace etc.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and encouragement in so many ways, and I pray the Lord’s strength and anointing of grace to be upon you assisting you to keep your heart centred on His wonderful promises.
Love,
Andrew
Testimonies
Thank you for the teaching of the Foundation of Seed. It is full of exciting in my heart, for the clear revelation from God through you. I was so grateful to you because of your teaching of biblical foundation. I learned deeper revelation from you. My contribution is very much small but full of generosity and desires to invest in the work of the Kingdom of God. Your encouragement makes me to get much more willing to sow the seeds in God's Kingdom. I am one of your faithful prayer partners… I am able to catch their teaching very well, because I have already received your very good foundation teaching in my heart. Your have a very powerful gift of teaching. Everybody well understands your teaching, and received at the bottom of their heart. Thank you H.P. (Myanmar/ Burma, March 2009)
Dear Rev Andrew, I also thank you very much because of you opened our spiritual eyes to see how to sow the seeds and how to receive the grace and power of God. Myself, now I am doing meditations. Senior Pastor M. N. (Myanmar/ Burma, March 2009).
| Resources
| To view 22 short videos (each less than ten minutes) by Andrew go to: www.youtube.com Type in the search box; "AndrewJShreeve" and click search.
To study 75 short written teachings go to: www.andrewshreeve.org click on the icon, ‘Partner Letters’. You may copy and print the teachings for easier study.
| Laying the Right Foundation – Part 2
Copyright © Andrew J. Shreeve 2009
| This month let us continue to look at foundational truths which need to be established in our understanding if we are to bear fruit in the kingdom of God. Last month we studied the parable Jesus’ taught in Mark 4:1-29. This parable teaches us that the fruit of God’s kingdom will be produced in our lives if we can successfully grow the seed of God’s Word/ promises in our heart. In the parable, the focus for fruitfulness is on successful seed growing. We must accept the truth that failure to receive God’s power is always a failure to successfully grow the promises of God in our heart. If we do not receive the truth of this parable as a foundation in our understanding, we will always be looking for excuses and other reasons why the power of God’s promises are not manifesting in our lives.
To successfully grow God’s seed in our heart we will need to have a strong conviction of the absolute reliability of God’s Word. So a key foundation I want to emphasis this month is the integrity of God’s Word. If we want to experience the fruit of God’s promises we must have a belief system which says, “God’s Word is true even if my experience says something different”. We must have a primary belief in the inspiration and supremacy of God’s Word over this natural world. In other words, we need to believe God’s Word has the creative power to change any circumstance in our lives.
A Christian will not invest the time to plant and water God’s promises in their heart though meditation, until they believe that God’s Word has the power and ability to change their circumstances. Therefore, a belief in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures is a key foundational truth for bearing fruit in God’s kingdom. I use the Old King James English Version of the bible because I know it was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew bibles, and therefore the source material is reliable. Also the translators italicize any English Words which are not literal translations from the original language. A good, free, computer, tool can be downloaded from www.e-sword.net which has the Old King James version together with the Strong’s Dictionary which gives us Greek and Hebrew meanings for more depth of understanding. It is important you are confident of the precise meaning of each Scriptural Word, as your life may depend on faith in those promises.
Jesus’ foundational parable in Mark 4 teaches us that God’s Word will produce the fruit of what it says if it can successfully grow in someone’s heart. Jesus is therefore affirming God’s Word as true and powerful.
To successfully grow the seed we must first find the Scripture/ promise, and then have belief in its divine inspiration. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. In other words, the bible is breathed by God. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21). These men bore or carried God’s Word. They brought it forth. The Scripture says the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man (2 Peter 1:21). We must settle in our heart that the Scripture is God’s Word to us. God is therefore committed to bringing to pass the fulfilment of His promises in the bible, if we will plant the promises in our heart.
The parable in Mark 4 teaches us the work of the devil is to distract us, to get our eyes off the Word of God (Mark 4:15), and onto something else. People often site examples of Christians who had experiences contrary to God’s promises as ‘evidence’ that God’s will must not be what He has promised. No! The foundational parable teaches that God’s Word will always produce what it says, if it can find the heart open to receive it (Mark 4:20). If a Christian does not experience God’s promises it simply means they were unsuccessful in growing the seed of that promise in their heart. We must interpret all things through the foundational teaching of Jesus. Otherwise we will be forever wavering unable to know with certainty God’s will. As James wrote in James 1:5-8: if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
We need to settle in our heart that God’s will is knowable. It is His eternal Word, and it changes not. God’s will is His Word which includes His precious promises. Through daily meditation we will over time remove doubt, as we by faith receive His promises into our heart. As we do not waver in our heart concerning God’s will for our lives we will receive God’s power. If we waver in our heart, if we allow thoughts of unbelief and uncertainty to enter into our heart, we will not receive power from the Lord.
Say with me: “Thank you Lord you have the power and ability to deliver to us your Word through holy men who wrote the bible. I decide to believe every Word in your bible. I receive your promises in my heart and will not waver. If I feel my heart wavering I will immediately meditate your promises, gaze intently at your Word, and work on establishing my heart in your covenant promises (Hebrews 4:11, Proverbs 4:23). My heart is good ground to bear much fruit, so I will show myself to be your disciple (John 8:31). Thank you for delivering to me the seeds of my freedom through your Word. I love you in Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen!”
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Itinerary
| 28 March 2009 Presbyterian Church, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
29 April 2009 Aglow International, Bangkok, Thailand
| | | | | | ANDREW SHREEVE MINISTRIES
‘Bringing good tidings, publishing peace and salvation’ (Isaiah 52:7, Romans 10:15) | |
