Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Old Wells



For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.   Psalm 86:5 ESV

Dear Friends,
I hope you can join us for our first ever Come Rest “Awakening of Love” in a Presbyterian church! Bring your friends!  I see a rich night of praising our Awesome Lord; simple, deep meditation upon His love in Psalm 86; more of His powerful manifest presence; and whatever else He wants to do! One of the very first times God’s manifest presence began to move powerfully in Cedar Rapids was through Presbyterians over 160 years ago. Come join us for an historic night in Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa! The Lord is calling us to reopen the old wells of His overflowing presence.
Come Rest in His love,
Dick Speight


Come Rest Ministries
 “Awakening of Love” Gathering
Friday, June 21st    6:30-9:30pm
Calvin-Sinclair Presbyterian 715 38th St SE, Cedar Rapids IA
Come rest in Jesus as we invite the Holy Spirit to come rest upon us!
Beautiful worship, teaching, testimonies, and prayer
awakening our region to Jesus as First Love!
Register at Door--Free will offering—Refreshments

Thursday, June 13, 2013

"Grace, Grace, to It!"




So he answered and said to me:“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts. ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”Zechariah 4:6-7 NKJV

Are you trying to fix yourself, your family, your church, your business, your world?  How is that going for you?
Sooner or later, trying to build your life, trying to follow Christ, in your own strength and talents becomes a mountain you can’t climb. The Lord knows this. He’s calls to us, “Come to Me, Take My Yoke, Learn from Me.”

The Lord says unless He builds the house, we labor in vain. The Lord is building His house-His family- in preparation for His return. He does not build lives through human force, wealth, or abilities. He builds us by His Spirit. If you do not yield control and begin learning from Him to walk with Him according to His word—then He can’t build you.  When you and I yield He is happy to show us how He wants us to use our resources as He sees fit.

So come rest from striving in your own strength to fix your life, your family, your church, your business, or the world.

Surrender to Him and speak “Grace, Grace” to your mountain. In practice, what does this mean?
1.     Thank Him for the undeserved gift of your salvation. Ask Him to forgive you for trying to do His job.
2.     Thank Him for the undeserved gift of the Holy Spirit as Helper. Ask Him to fix things & help you do His will, not yours.
3.     Ask Him to bring believers to mind who are more deeply rooted in Him than you are. Ask them for prayer & counsel.
4.     Spend at least one hour/day alone with the Lord in prayer&scripture. Ask what you need to cut. Do it.
5.     Start spending at least two hours per week in deep Spirit-led fellowship with other believers.
6.     Await instructions. They will come slowly, deeply from the One who made us, died to save us, lives to build us.

Grace, Grace is not cheap. He gives it to you at great cost to Himself. But then again you were worth it. Time is short. Show Him how grateful you are.  Let Him build every day of your life as Father’s Day gift for Him.

Come rest in His love,
Dick Speight

Saturday, June 1, 2013

O my Strength



O my Strength, I will sing your praises;

for you, o God are my fortress;

you are the God who shows me steadfast love.  Psalm 59:17 ESV



Recently, the Lord gained my attention through this powerful verse. David is under assault from the adversary. Yet the last verse, the “bottom line”, begins ‘O my Strength’! The Lord helped me commit the verse to memory over two days. Try it. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Let Him be your Strength. Repeat the three simple phrases of verse 17 one at a time, over and over again, out loud to Him throughout your day. Sooner or later, the Holy Spirit will have helped you memorize it. Instead of thinking of memorization in a worldly way as some nasty chore to accomplish in your strength; see it as an intimate encounter with the Lord as He helps you with His strength. Memorization through prayer declaration is what the Bible calls “hiding” His word in your heart. You are not repeating the verse to yourself, you are repeating the verse aloud to Him! The more often you repeat a brief passage to Him, you are letting the Holy Spirit plant it securely rooted in your mind so He can bring it back to you just when He knows you need it. He has created your brain, mouth, and ears to operate in such a way that the more you speak Scripture aloud to Him and over yourself, the more His Spirit makes His Word part of you making you more like Christ! So join me this month in hiding and declaring Psalm 59:17 to our loving Lord. Watch how our wonderful Holy Spirit leads and sustains you!



O my Strength!  I just love that declaration! The Lord is my Strength—not me. Isn’t that truth so freeing, so refreshing, so empowering? 



I remember one Saturday afternoon 14 years ago. I was standing in prayer at my seat in the church sanctuary. A prayer team from Texas was teaching on prayer and spiritual warfare to the church I was serving as pastor.  After the final session the leader, Vicky Porterfield, invited us to stand and wholeheartedly ask the Holy Spirit to give us all He wanted to give us. As Vicky came to my seat she put her hand over my forehead, barely touching me, and began to pray for me.  Suddenly, under her hand I felt a sweet, swirling, energy on my forehead and then a surge of power like electricity came up my arms and legs and dropped me in the pew. It was like I was a marionette puppet and somebody came with scissors and cut the strings holding me up. When I hit the pew, my tongue started moving against the roof of my mouth and, shocked, I shut it down! Then, speechless, I sat there as something like a slideshow began running through my mind. Suddenly I saw scenes from the book of Acts and from accounts in John Wesley’s journals of the Holy Spirit moving in the early Methodist revivals in England. I knew God had just touched me with just a very little of His power. In my mind I was crying out to Him, “My God, it’s all true!”  I sat there for one hour in silent awe. Then Vicky encouraged Kim and other leaders to help me get on the floor. For the next hour, waves of joyous laughter came over me.



But, what I remember most is what Vicky prayed over me, “Father, you know how long this man has loved you, yet been striving in the strength of his own power to serve you.  Father, that ends today!” Four days later in my quiet time of prayer, scripture, and journaling, I felt like I heard the Lord say these words in my heart, “Never again will you try to make things happen. From now on, you will wait on me to bring things to you from My unfolding hand. And when I bring them to you, you will step boldly into them. I made you to be My man of action, but you must let me lead.” Fourteen years later I still treasure the memory of that little “love pat” from God. I treasure the gift of tongues and holy laughter and all of it. I know that I know that there is so much more of God for us all to experience.



Most importantly, I am so grateful to our patient, merciful Lord for how He worked in my life in all the years previous to that experience to “set me up”. He gave me deep desire for Him while also allowing me to grow weary in self-striving. He led me to a time when His presence would come rest upon me, so I could come rest in Him. He ushered me away from striving in my strength to do big things for Him. He doesn’t want us to do things for Him; He wants us to do things from Him, by Him. There is a big difference. So many believers and churches are weary and heavy laden because we are doing things that He did not lead us to do; or we are doing things He called us to do in our own resources, not by His Spirit.



Fourteen years later I am still learning to let Him love me and lead me. How about you?



This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit” says the Lord of hosts.

                                                                                                                        Zechariah 4:6 NKJV



In Zechariah’s time, the governor Zerubbabel, was charged with the responsibility of overseeing the rebuilding of the temple. Yet, the Lord spoke a word to him that rings out for all times for all God’s people, especially 2013. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”  The word “might” means force of arms or wealth. The word “power” means natural talents or abilities.



The Lord calls every believer to rely on the riches, abilities, and leading of the Holy Spirit to do the work He assigns us. So many of us have good intentions to serve the Lord, yet rely on our own resources and abilities. The Lord wants us to let Him lead. He will show us how to use our resources and abilities as long as we are not placing our trust in them. He has so much more for us. Notice that He identifies Himself through Zechariah as the “Lord of Hosts.” This means He is the Commander of all Angel Armies. Whether you are a believer or not, please trust that He loves you more than you can possibly understand. If you have truly surrendered to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are more secure in His protective love than you can possibly feel; and He is calling you to renew His Church and reach the lost in ways that you can’t possibly do on your own. Do not settle for anything less than His love, power, and call on your life. Do not limit yourself by your own understanding or resources. You are very young to the Lord. He is just getting started with you. Do not hunker down. Do not settle in to your present circumstances. Come to rest only under His powerful, guiding Arm. Let Him love you and lead you by the Holy Spirit—with all the help of His Angel Armies!



Right now, ask the Holy Spirit to give you all He wants to give you. Open up to all His power and possibilities. You don’t have to have the same experience I had. You get to have what He wants for you! Of course you cannot do what the Lord is calling you to do! The end of your self-striving is the beginning of thriving by His Spirit. Ask Him to refresh your vision. Stop trying to take things into your own hands. Put your life afresh into His. Jesus says, “I only do what I see My Father doing; I only say what I hear My Father saying.” This describes the life of rest the Lord wants to give you and teach you. Seek out other Christians who are seeking the Lord with all their hearts and seeking to serve Him in the strength of His spirit, not their own power. Invite others around you to come rest from religious self-striving and launch into Spirit-led fruitfulness.



The Lord of Hosts is shaking the earth and awakening His people—even me, even you. Let go. Let’s go.



O my Strength, I will sing your praises;

for you, o God are my fortress;

you are the God who shows me steadfast love.  

Come rest in His love,
Richard Speight