GIG252 The Leaven of the Kingdom
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: In a message to faithful believers in Monterrey, Mexico, Gary shares with them the answer for Mexico. The answer is the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven that was implanted within them. This leaven will grow until it influences all of Mexico. And it will not stop until it fills the whole earth. Show Notes: At the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all leaven is removed from the house and unleavened bread is eaten for seven days. In 1 Corinthians Paul compares this process to what happens within us. During this feast we are to clean out the old leaven...
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GIG251 Take Every Thought Captive
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: As Christians, are we conformed to this age? Do people look at us and see no difference between us and the world? The Lord does not want us to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. By the authority of Christ through the Holy Spirit, we destroy the speculations that are conforming us to this world. And we take every thought captive in obedience to Christ. Show Notes: As Paul explained in 2 Corinthians, spiritual warfare involves destroying speculations and bringing every thought captive in...
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GIG250 Israel Solidarity Trip
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: God commanded us to comfort His people. And that is what we intend to do, not just by our prayers but by our actions. That is what this Israel solidarity trip is all about. We are going to Israel to be the hands, feet, and voices of comfort to the Israeli people. We are going there to help them spiritually and physically during this time when so much is coming against them. Show Notes: At Hargrave Ministries we are on our latest solidarity trip to Israel. The purpose of our trip, as the name states, is to show solidarity with the...
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GIG249 The Ministry of Bethesda
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: How do we bring the healing that we need and that the world today needs so desperately? The example of healing at Bethesda is a lesson for all of us to apply. When Christ asks us, “Do you wish to be healed?” Our answer needs to be an emphatic, “Yes!” And not, “We are waiting for someone to carry us.” Christ is the source of our healing. He is always willing. And we pick up our own bed and walk in what He has provided. Show Notes: During the first church service of Bethesda Ministries and the ordination of Silas as pastor, a...
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GIG248 Remembering our Dear Brother, Pope Francis
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: On the death of Pope Francis, we must do more than reflect on his legacy. We must be in intercession for the selection of the new Pope because this will impact how the entire Body of Christ moves forward. Let us pray by the Spirit to create the Pope who will not only continue what Pope Francis started, but will break new ground in our oneness, our functioning by the Spirit, and our connection with the Jewish people. Show Notes: As the Catholic Church remembers Pope Francis, we also remember our connection with him and with Catholics...
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GIG247 Christ Given His Kingdom, Daniel 7:14
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: After a vision of men turning away from evil because of the force of the Kingdom of God in the spirit realm, Gary laid out a burden for greater effectiveness in our prayers to see real change happen in the earth. Our meditation should be something that connects with the Kingdom of God that we have already received and then manifests the power of God in the earth from within us. Show Notes: Daniel saw the Son of Man come up to God from where He was given “dominion, glory, and a kingdom.” He saw this before Christ ascended to the...
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GIG246 This Is the Day
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: The book of Zechariah records the specific day on which Zechariah’s prophecy was voiced. This emphasizes the significance of this prophecy and how much we should be expecting God to fulfill His Word in our day. We look eagerly for the fulfillment of these promises of God’s blessings on Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. This is the day they come to pass. Show Notes: The prophecy of Zechariah is one of the greatest messianic prophecies that we have. And in Zechariah 1:7, we are given the exact day when that prophecy came. The significance...
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GIG245 I Stand at the Door and Knock
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: The Lord begged the church in Laodicea to open the door to Him, so He could dine with them. This need to dine with God does not make sense to our Christian thinking. But it makes total sense in the Hebraic context of making a covenant over a meal. God is knocking on the door of the Church in this day. And regardless of how far removed we are from Him, if we open the door, He will make a covenant with us to bring us into everything He has promised. Show Notes: The Laodicean church was a lost church, having fallen away from God. Yet...
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GIG244 The Difficulties of Deliverance
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: At the Passover God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt to bring them into the land He had promised their fathers. But their focus was on the difficulties that this deliverance meant to the life they had adapted to. Moving from our present age into God’s Kingdom can also feel like a disruption to the life we are comfortable with in this world. Our focus must be on His Kingdom and not on the difficulties of deliverance. Show Notes: Passover celebrates the deliverance of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. When they first heard that the Lord had come...
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GIG243 Christian Persecution
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: Christianity is suffering tribulation today even if we as individuals feel unaffected by it. We need to be one with our fellow Christians who are suffering and be praying for them. Let us not be fearful of what satan might do to us because Christ defeated him at the cross. Even if we must face death ourselves, we overcome satan by simply exercising Christ’s victory. Show Notes: The Lord said to the church in Smyrna, “I know your tribulation and your poverty.” Just as God knew then what the Christians in Smyrna were suffering, He is aware of what Christians...
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Hanukkah is all about the Temple of God—what had happened to
defile it and what they did to cleanse it and rededicate it. We too are a temple of God.
We are to be a holy place in which God can dwell. But He cannot dwell within us if we
are filled with defilement. Let us do today what Hanukkah celebrates. Let us enter into
the promises that God will purify us and dwell in us. Then let us rededicate ourselves to
walk with Him.
Show Notes:
Christians need a greater understanding of Hanukkah. It occurs around
Christmas time, but it existed as a celebration long before Christians conceived of
Christmas. Hanukkah is the Feast of Dedication. And it remembers the time the Temple
was rededicated to God after it had been defiled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes during the
Seleucid dynasty. We as Christians should regard this time of rededication to the pure
worship of God as something very applicable us.
The people at the time of Antiochus IV rose up and fought against the defilement, and
they removed it from their midst. What was at stake was the very presence of God in
the place where He chose to dwell—the Temple. We must take it just as seriously
today. We must fight against everything that is coming into our lives to defile us
because the issue is still the same: Will God have a place to dwell in the earth? We are
to be His dwelling place. We are to be His temple. And He cannot dwell in us if our
temple is defiled.
This Hanukkah should be a tremendous time for all of us. It was a lot of work to remove
all the objects of defilement, clean and prepare the Temple, and rededicate it to the
worship of God. And it may take a lot of work to do that in our own lives. But Hanukkah
means that it can happen. We can separate ourselves from the defilement of this age.
We can repent and He will cleanse us. We can be that place for Him to dwell.
Key Verses:
Read 1 Maccabees 4:36–59.
John 10:22–24.
“The Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; … and
Jesus was walking in the temple.”
2 Corinthians 7:1.
“Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and
spirit.”
John 2:14–16. “He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out.”
2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.”
1 Corinthians 6:19–20. “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
1 John 1:9. “He is faithful and righteous to … cleanse us.”
2 Corinthians 6:14–18. “We are the temple of the living God.”
Ephesians 2:18–22. “You also are being built together into a dwelling of God in
the Spirit.”
Quotes:
“As we enter into Hanukkah ourselves and find the importance in our own lives
about it, we realize we begin with an energy, with a drive in our heart that says,
‘We must remove all defilement.’”
“He is holy, and He must dwell within holiness. We cannot tolerate the defilement
and the uncleanness. We must remove all defilement and dedicate ourselves to
being the dwelling place of God on this earth.”
“We must be dedicated to the fact that He must have a holy temple called the
Body of Christ in whom He will dwell, having built us up together into that
dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Takeaways:
1. Just as the Temple had been defiled in the days of the Maccabees, today
there are many people who have been defiled so that they no longer qualify
as a place in which God can dwell.
2. Just as the altar and the instruments of worship had to be remade and
rededicated, so this is a time for us to remake our lives in God. It is time for us
to begin again and rededicate ourselves to the Lord.
3. We must put the energy into tearing down and removing that which is defiled.
We must be cleansed of the defilement within ourselves, and we must
rededicate our lives in service to the Lord so that we might be that place in
which He will dwell.