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O that God would stir our hearts with passion; that we would encounter Him with such abandon, that we could all say: "God, I'm as hungry for You today as I was at any other time in my life!" Psalms 42:1-2, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" Panting! Thirsting! But thirsting for what? The answer is here: "When shall I come and appear before God?" It's not about us appearing before people. It's about us appearing before God. Revelation 2:4, 5a" --"Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works." "You have left your first love." We can all think of those days when we were hungrier and more radical for God, devouring our Bible every day. Maybe it was in those first few months that we were a Christian. But now, because of some hard trials, valleys, and disappointments, we realize that we're still walking with God, still reading the Bible and going to church, but there's something missing. Jesus Christ is challenging us, so let's be honest. We need to FALL IN LOVE WITH JESUS AGAIN--revisit First Love. REPENT AND DO THE FIRST WORKS There's something about when we begin to remember and allow the Holy Spirit to move in the imagination, taking us back to the greatest times of God's power coming in our lives. It's important to remember those times when we were really hungry. The problem is, sometimes we just accept being lukewarm as normal, and our attitude is: "I've grown up in the church, and I'm a Christian. I don't need to be all that zealous anymore." But Jesus said to "Remember therefore from where you have fallen," and then He goes on to say, "Repent and do the first works." There are times when Christians get so hopeless and disappointed -- so discouraged. TAKE HOLD OF GOD AFRESH If there is luke-warmness, you have to take responsibility for it. It's not always the church's fault. You've got to STIR YOURSELF UP to take hold of God, go to the well yourself, and go to the river of God yourself. You need to say, "I don't just want to go to where the blessing is, I want to be the blessing. I don't just want to go to the revival, I want to carry the revival. I want to be what starts the revival!" We've got to be at a place where we stop and say, "Soul, what are you doing, and why are you so complacent? I've got to remember from where I have fallen. I've got to get back that love and that passion and that fire; I've got to get it back! I've got to repent and do the first works! Something's wrong here. I'm not going to stay here anymore murmuring and going around this mountain. I am going to do something about it!" ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

Matthew 3:11 - "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire." OH, HOLY SPIRIT....OH, FIRE! THAT SO INTIMATELY AND TENDERLY PENETRATES THE FIBRE AND CORE OF MY SOUL.....CLEANSE ME, BURN IN ME, WITH YOUR PASSION FOR CHRIST! John 5:44 - "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" We need to decide if we are going to let all of the previous wounds and disappointments determine who we are, or if we are going to be like Christ, using the Cross to determine who we are, seizing the occasion to die to ourselves and rise above this world and live in resurrection power. We cannot be resurrected unless we have first died. Observation: I KNOW I AM RELATING CORRECTLY TO GOD WHEN MY HUNGER FOR HIS GLORY CAUSES ME TO FORSAKE THE PRAISE OF MEN. 1 John 3:6 - "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." Affirmation: I CONFESS I HAVE A NEW NATURE WITH NEW DESIRES! HIS DIVINE SEED IS REPRODUCING GOD'S LIFE IN ME SO THAT EVERY DAY I AM THINKING MORE LIKE GOD, ACTING MORE LIKE GOD, AND POSSESSING LESS TOLERANCE FOR ANY SIN THAT MIGHT STILL BE ACTIVE IN MY LIFE. ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY http://afministry.ning.com

1 Corinthians 2:10 - "For to us God revealed them through His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." Because the Spirit "searches all things, even the depths of God", no one who is truly led by the Spirit will be shallow in their understanding. If we are led by the Spirit, we will love the truth enough to seek it out. We will be compelled to have a depth to our knowledge. Affirmation: THE SPIRIT ALSO WANTS TO MOVE IN ME TO SEARCH THE DEPTHS OF GOD. John 11:44 - "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, 'Loose him, and let him go.'" Observation: I know that I can be raised from the dead spiritually and yet, still be bound. I can be saved by the power of Christ and yet, still be bound by the tight trappings of life. Isaiah 53:3 - "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." Affirmation: I OVERCOME REJECTION BECAUSE MY VISION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN APPROVAL. ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

Proverbs 20:27 - "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord." Luke 17:20,21 - "The kingdom of God comes not with observation. For behold, the kingdom of God is within you." If we wait quietly before God and learn to turn the eyes of our soul to the inward parts of our being -- our spirits -- we will encounter Him in the deep levels, as that is where His Spirit dwells. Matthew 25:30 - "And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Affirmation: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GIVING ME WISDOM AND COURAGE TO STEP OUT AND BEGIN TO FULFILL THE DREAM HE AS BIRTHED SO DEEPLY INSIDE ME. Jude 22 - "And of some have compassion, making a difference." Affirmation: MY HEART RELEASES THE COMPASSION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HELP DELIVER PEOPLE CAUGHT IN THE DECEPTION OF SIN AND DARKNESS AND SET THEM FREE. ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

"Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4 "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." - John 14:13 He is pulling you away from the old, and taking you under the water into the unknown for a time of being unseen and unheard, for a "deeper depth" experience with Him. LET THE HOLY SPIRIT PROPEL YOU FORWARD You will often feel like you are going backwards, but in reality you're being propelled forward into a greater spiritual growth. The tendency is to strive in a forward motion much like you've always done, but soon you realize that you're no match for the current of the Lord's strength. This is not the enemy doing this! God is asking you to let go of what you "thought" was of Him. Humble yourself and flow in the direction the Holy Spirit is drawing you into. God is asking you to not judge things by your natural eyesight. God is doing something bigger than you can see right now. Yes, He's about to blow your paradigm and expand your destiny consciousness. What's the purpose of this? He is preparing to set you up to ride on top of the next big move of His Spirit, but you have to let go of the old to receive the new. God is going to lift you up on the top of this wave with greater speed, accuracy, and impact, than the one you were previously on. Let go and receive a greater commission! See with the eyes of your spirit man, not the eyes of your flesh. It's time to graduate and go to the next level! It's time to put on the new wine skins fully and receive the infilling of new strength, vigor, and faith. God is getting ready to set you up to ride the wave of your lifetime! Isaiah 42:9,10 - " Behold the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things;......sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise from the end of the earth! ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

Matthew 6:22 : "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." MIRRORS OF THE SOUL The eyes are the literal mirrors of a person's soul and reveals much about a person's deep inner man. In that deep place of the heart, the eye of the body that is full of light, can also reveal secrets into the unseen realm depending upon a person's intimate connection or transparency with God. Our eyes are portals of Heaven that we many times overlook within ourselves and within others. THE FACE OF AN ANGEL In the case of Steven in the New Testament, he was a man who was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5). He was so full of grace and power that he performed great wonders and signs among the people during his day (Acts 6:8). In the synagogues of Asia, they disputed with Stephen because of their own stubborn misperception and blindness of spiritual sight (Acts 6:9). Stephen preached with boldness and they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spoke (Acts 6:10). Even to the point of death, he had no fear to speak God's truth because his "eye" saw something beyond this natural world. All that sat in the council, looking steadfastly and intently at him, saw his face and countenance "as it had been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15). Seeing that Stephen was "full of the Holy Spirit… he gazed intently into Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God," saying, 'Behold, I see the Heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God'" (Acts 7:55-56). A LIFESTYLE OF GAZING When Stephen "gazed" (NAS) or "looked up steadfastly" (KJV) into Heaven, the Greek definition and meaning of this was not only that he fixed his "eyes" but also purposed his "mind" into Heaven. The eyes of his mind and the eyes of his heart went into auto-focus by the power of the Holy Spirit, as in the sense of stretching his eye sight towards the face of God that gave him the supernatural power to endure the kind of death he was about to experience. This reveals that Stephen had a "lifestyle of gazing" into the eyes and heart of God and is the reason why he was so filled with the glory of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave himself over to locking his eyesight on the Lord Jesus Christ, and it caused everything else to either become dim or disappear in his perception of reality. He was so overtaken by the Holy Spirit that the unseen realm at that moment was more real to him than the seen realm of the excruciating pain of being stoned to death. In these last days we are going to need this kind of supernatural strength and power to be able to endure the days ahead of us with a lifestyle of gazing. CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS The enemy continues to try to bring disgrace and discredit the people of God through spiritual blindness – blindness that is caused by the lack of looking and gazing into the face of God as a regular exercise of intimate worship or the lack of CONFESSING and MEDITATING on the Scriptures to find food for the soul and nourishment for the spiritual eyes. Ephesians 1:18 - " I pray that your inward eyes may be illumined, so that you may know what is the hope to which He calls you..." Ephesians 6:17 - "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God." Because of life's distractions, sin and self-righteous pride, this was one of the stumbling blocks of the Pharisees that prevented them from seeing that Jesus was really who He said He was, God. Because they couldn't see, they couldn't believe. If they couldn't see, they had no vision and they missed out on entering into the Kingdom of God. THE EYE OF THE LORD IS MOVING So now the Lord is reminding us in 2 Chronicles 16:9 which says, "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His." God is on the move, running and eagerly searching with the laser beam of His eyes, looking for those who are filled with His light to see that He is ready to strongly support those whose eye lenses of the heart and mind are turned completely towards Him. He is inviting us into the journey of His heart – into the journey of the unseen realm. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). No one has seen God at any time (John 1:18), yet Jesus tells us in the beatitudes that the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). If God is wanting us to look and gaze intently at Him, isn't it because He is looking and gazing intently at us? The eyes of God reveal intimacy and longing and a strong desire to be with us now and forevermore. God is longing for those who are longing for Him. If you are experiencing an indescribable longing in your heart toward God, that means He is drawing you. PRAYER OF RESTORATION AND VISION: God, thank You for saving my life and thank You for restoring my soul. God, open my eyes to see You like never before. Help me to see and perceive through Your eyes. Restore my vision that may have become dull or blinded through discouragement, circumstances, sin, hardship or even neglect. Forgive me for not responding to Your voice when You are calling me. Draw me, God, and I will run to You. Open the eyes of my heart, God, that I may see You face to face. I come boldly to Your throne to worship You in Spirit and in truth and to love You sincerely with all my heart, mind, soul and strength by CONFESSING and MEDITATING on your Word. I thank You for hearing my prayer and my heart's cry to be closer to You. I give You honor and glory and praise this day, in Jesus name I pray, Amen! ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me." - John 10:27 The Lord said that His sheep know His voice -- He did not stay that His lambs did. Young Believers (in spiritual age) often need to follow (be discipled by) other Christians until they mature. One of the primary ways we mature and become sheep is by knowing His voice (walking in the Spirit). We should also be devoted to building on a foundation of sound doctrine and an understanding of who we are in Christ. This is part of growing in the truth and having a love for the truth but fundamental to our life is following the Person who is the Truth. INTO ACTION: Sit with a group of other Christians and seek to hear the voice of the Lord -- He will speak to them. When you hear others in the group begin to say what they heard, it builds your confidence that they are hearing the Lord. As people minister in the group, over time, their sensitivity to His voice can grow dramatically. Then they start hear Him at work, while shopping, or at any time and in any place that He wants to speak. AFFIRMATION: I make it a weelky goal to hear something from the Lord for another person. ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me." - Psalm 42:7 "Deep calls." Our Lord is a seeking God who desires a satisfaction that can be found only in us – our worship and our times of fellowship with Him. We were created for this purpose, which became marred by our association with the world. "At the noise of Your waterspouts." Our initial response may seem to us as being "noise," but as we continue to worship and spend time in fellowship with the Lord, it will become as a "song." "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." - Exodus 15:2 If we will be patient and not become discouraged, we will be immersed in His presence – "all Your waves are gone over me." Now, we are no longer in control. Others will notice the change in us and ask: "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?... " - Song of Solomon 8:5 "Deep calls." -- In order to rightly respond, we must become spiritually hungry. LET OUR PRAYER BE "DRAW ME" "Draw me, we will run after Thee: the King hath brought me into His chambers... " - Song of Solomon 1:4 This prayer, "Draw me," relates to our spiritual hunger. It is the most important request that we could ever set before the Lord. If we do not have this spiritual hunger, our interests will settle upon earthly pursuits, and we will seek satisfaction in them alone. Ministry can feed hunger, but only the Lord can create spiritual hunger. This prayer for us to become spiritually hungry will be effective only after we commit ourselves to rightly respond to the Lord – "We will run after You." The written Word is to become a present reality, and experienced. Thus, we must determine that we will steadfastly seek a closer relationship to the Lord. When He responds to our prayer and begins to draw us to Himself, all of our other needs will fall into their proper place and order, including His CALLING on or life. "But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. " - Matthew 6:33 The greatest privilege and blessing that we can have is for the Lord to become active in our spiritual life experience and begin to progressively guide us toward our DESTINY in Christ. THE DEEP CRY OF THE LORD "My Beloved is mine... " - Song of Solomon 2:16 We tend to seek the Lord for what He can do for us. The Lord knows this, but patiently works within us so He will be able to take us further. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:10 Therefore, He begins by revealing to us our present condition and spiritual need to know HisPURPOSE for our life. After He has accomplished the needed deliverance and correction within us, we will begin to seek the Lord for Himself. "I am my Beloved's..." - Song of Solomon 6:3 Now we are putting the Lord first, though much of our self-seeking is still intact. "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth; for Your loves are better than wine. For Your ointments have a lovely fragrance; Your name is as oil poured out; therefore the virgins love You." - Song of Solomon 1:2-3 Notice that we are telling the Lord that we love Him because of all that He gives to us. We are saying, "I love You because I enjoy Your blessings." But again, the Lord looks beyond our self-centeredness and continues His work within us, until we see our need and confess it to the Lord. "Do not look on me, that I am black, that the sun has looked on me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my vineyard I have not kept." - Song of Solomon 1:6 We realize that we have worked very hard "for" the Lord, even in the heat of the day, so that we have become "sun burned." But we have ignored the "deep" cry of the Lord, and have neglected our CALLING in His kingdom (vineyard). Therefore, He allows our circumstances to become a problem to us, which will result in "our mother's sons" (those we are close to) becoming angry with us. All of the things that we had depended on have suddenly become an enemy. Now we realize that we must have the Lord Himself, and we cry out for satisfaction. FEED MY SHEEP "Tell me, You whom my soul loves, where do You feed, where do You lie down at noon? For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of Your companions?" - Song of Solomon 1:7 Finally, we discover that we can no longer be satisfied to drink from the overflow of another's blessing, or to feed upon the testimony or experience of another, and we began to look for the Lord Himself. Immediately, the Lord responds: "If you know not, most beautiful among women, go in the footsteps of the flock, and feed your kids beside the shepherds' tents" (Song of Solomon 1:8). The Lord is telling us that we should feed the sheep he has put in our lives ("feed your kids"). Without the mentorship of someone who has an active, personal relationship with Him, the spiritual path can be obscure to "baby Christians". "He saith unto him, 'Feed my sheep.' He saith unto him the third time....'Feed my sheep.'" - John 21:16,17 "THERE I WILL GIVE YOU MY LOVES" Now, there is a complete change in our expression, as the Lord Himself has become the goal that we seek. "I am my Beloved's and His desire is toward me." - Song of Solomon 7:10 I have come from a salvation experience in which I had been satisfied to escape from eternal punishment, into a relationship in which my life is sold out to Jesus and His PURPOSE for my life. As I long for His fellowship, He can say to me: "Come, My beloved, let us go out into the field; let us stay in the villages. Let us rise up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flowers, whether the tender grape appears, and the pomegranates bud forth; there I will give you My loves" (Song of Solomon 7:11-12). We will be sent only after we have first come to Him. Now, as we commune together in the vineyard, we will find all that we have longed for (co-laboring with Him in our CALLING) , as we respond to the "deep" cry of the Lord – "There I will give you My loves." ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

"I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me." - Revelation 3:18,20 It was to the last Church the Lord addressed in the Book of Revelation, the Church of Laodicea, that He gave His greatest promise to. Those promises are for His people today. When most people think of the Church of Laodicea, they think of the negative rather than the positive. We need to consider these great promises. First, we need to see why they are so great. Then we need to understand how overcoming the negative things this Church confronted will produce some of the greatest overcomers, the greatest saints, the world has ever known. The Church of Laodicea was so temporally prosperous that it caused them to become lukewarm, and made the Lord so sick that He would vomit them out of His mouth (Revelation 3:15-17). Being lukewarm is the worst condition a Christian can fall into. It reveals an ultimate contempt for the Lord. Indifference is the greatest affront to any relationship. ZEAL FOR THE LORD "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent." - Revelation 3:19 The Lord called the Church at Laodicea to "therefore be earnest and repent" . We must recover and keep our zeal for the Lord if we are going to make it through these times. How do we do that? The Lord sent fire from His presence to light the fire on the altar in both the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple that Solomon built. He then commanded the priests to KEEP THE FIRE GOING. God has lit every fire in every heart that has ever turned to Him. However, He expects us to keep it going. WE DO THIS BY: prayer, worship, studying and affirming His written Word to us, fellowshipping with others who have the fire, being the witnesses we are called to be, and embracing God's PURPOSEfor our life. We lose the fire when we give ourselves to sin and wickedness. This leads to lawlessness as described in Romans 6. The Lord warned that lawlessness would cause the love of most to grow cold. THE REMNANT PRINCIPLE The remnant principle was at work when the resurrected Lord told five hundred people to go to Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. However, just a few weeks later, there were only 120 gathered there. Yet that remnant was in "one accord" or unity. As Abraham demonstrated, true faith grows stronger with the passage of time, not weaker. The passage of time between when the promise is given and the fulfillment of that promise will usually thin out the crowd by removing those who do not have true faith, but are just caught up in the excitement of the moment. This does not mean that those with true faith will not waver sometimes too, but overall, true faith grows with the passage of time. Is our faith growing stronger, or are we going to slip into the majority that drifts away? People tend to draw their security by how many people are with them. True faith doesn't. True faith is faith in God, not how many people are with us. True faith is demonstrated by patience, which is why we are told that it is through "faith and patience" that we will inherit the promises. "Then, knowing what lies ahead for you, you won't become bored with being a Christian, nor become spiritually dull and indifferent, but you will be anxious to follow the example of those who receive all that God has promised them because of their strong faith and patience." - Hebrews 6:12 (Living Bible) ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

"Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord'" (Ezekiel 37:4). Everywhere the Living Water flows, life will suddenly spring up! The more the Word is preached, prophesied, declared, affirmed, discipled and confessed the more the dry bones will rattle and rise from death to resurrection power as an exceedingly great army. THE FLOODING OF GOD'S SPIRIT IS COMING Let's all draw near to Him and ask Him to flood our individual lives and the lives we touch and minister to -- for everything the water touches will spring to life. Let's spend more time raising our spiritual consciousness with the truths of our inheritance in Christ from the Bible so that there are no "empty places" in our souls. Let's spend more time worshiping the Father and praying each and every day, letting the Living Waters fill us and then flow out of innermost being to the people whose lives God has given us to affect and change. Let's flood the atmosphere around us every day with the glory of God! For He is the Kingdom and the power and the glory. As we do this, then we will see exactly what Habakkuk 2:14 says - "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY