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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GIG242 Religion or Relationship?
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: The religion of their day prevented many from receiving Christ when He appeared in the flesh. Religion is no different in our day. Religion tends to establish orthodox interpretations about God rather than lead us into a relationship with God. However, the promise is that we will all know the Lord. And we need to honestly deal with that which prevents us from knowing Him, even if it is our own religious thinking. Show Notes: It is important to understand the degree to which our lack of awareness is based on our religious upbringing. Religious orthodoxy encourages...
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GIG241 Will You Be Aware?
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: The Scriptures warn us that just as we are unaware of a thief at night, we could be unaware of the Lord’s appearing. Perhaps the greatest problem we face is not the circumstances in the world but our own unawareness of God. It is imperative that we seek the Lord for a greater awareness and understanding of what He is saying and doing today. Show Notes: A characteristic of the end-time is the unawareness on people. We see this in the flood of anti-Semitism that is moving through the world today and even sweeping through many churches. What enables the anti-Semitism...
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GIG240 Purim—How God Works Deliverance
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Growing In God Podcast Web Description: In the story of Esther, the king was not personally involved in delivering the Jews from the destruction imposed by Haman. However, his signet ring in the hand of Mordecai gave Mordecai all the king’s authority and power to deliver the Jews as if he were the king himself. Likewise through the name of Yeshua (Jesus), we have been given the signet ring of God Himself. Let us accept who we are as His instruments and use His authority and power to bring Christ’s deliverance to the earth. Show Notes: In the story of Esther, King Ahasuerus gave...
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GIG239 You Are Born by the Will of God
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: Get out of your mind that you are here on the earth by happenstance, wondering, “Why am I here? What is my purpose?” Instead of spending a lifetime trying to answer those questions, simply know that you were brought to birth by the will of God to be on earth at this time. And God is working in you and through you to accomplish exactly what He wants to accomplish. Show Notes: There is so much confusion in this age that it can be overwhelming. This level of confusion can lead people to feel ineffective in their lives and even develop a sense of uselessness or...
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GIG238 Appropriate All His Provisions
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: The parable of the king who invited guests to his wedding feast is something we want to apply to our hearts today. God has made a great provision of salvation through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. It is His free gift to us by His grace, but we still must show up before Him and appropriate all that He has made available. This means we need to get rid of any excuses and everything that we would value more than God’s great provision. Lord, help us to come before You with prepared hearts, worshipping You with thankfulness for all You have given us. Show...
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GIG237 God’s Word Is for Now
Growing In God with Gary Hargrave
Web Description: If God put us in this world by His will, then we accept that He has enabled us to do His will. That means whatever He makes real to us in His Word is not something only for the past or waiting for the future. His Word is something He wants us to walk in now. Therefore, we ask God’s help to end our double-mindedness by making our conscious and subconscious minds a united force to manifest His Word in the present. Show Notes: As Christians we believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God. But we need to change our conditioning that relegates everything in the...
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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.