Comments Off on MPC Virtual Academy: Deeper Union with Christ
Videos will be uploaded August 6, 2021
These videos provide virtual access to the music, teachings, testimonies, and prayers of all sessions of the 2021 Cedar Springs school. The school is designed to remove barriers and encourage all in entering a deeper union with Christ, by the work of His Spirit. Videos will be available for unlimited viewing from August 6 thru October 8, 2021.
A guide to the sessions and topics will be posted here when the videos are ready for viewing.
We would love to hear from you as you attend the school online, so please email us to share your experience or prayer need at any time.
“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.” (Isaiah 41:17–18)
It is good to end a book on listening prayer with a brief meditation on Christ, our Lord, as the free-flowing fountain of life. In waiting on Him we receive. We have heard Christ say to us, even as he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well:
If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.… Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:10, 13–14).
The Apostle John, now with the benefit of hindsight, interprets His meaning in the light of Pentecost and the pouring out of the Spirit upon the faithful. Infinitely beyond what we can fathom or even begin to express, to live is to receive new life from Christ. We “live and move and have our being” in Him (Acts 17:28). We are empowered for the work of the kingdom. It is my hope that the life of prayer, as we have touched on in this book (Listening Prayer) will encourage many to ask for and receive a mighty baptism in Christ’s Spirit as well as many a subsequent infilling and renewing in the same Holy Spirit. [1]
The hymn, Flow Oh Mighty Holy River paints a beautiful image of the fullness that we can receive from the living water of the Holy Spirit. Our Father longs to quench our thirst when we are weary and refreshes us with His waters of joy and His abundant blessing. He revives and encourages our heart, as we sit before Him in prayer, with His abundant grace. We are like flowers opening up to His gracious blessing, like mighty oaks drawing up the water of life through deep roots. Let us open our hearts so that we will be filled to overflowing with His living water. Let us drink abundantly from the fountain of very life itself.
PRAYER
Holy God, thank You for the beautiful gift of your Holy Spirit. We rejoice that you are continually renewing and refreshing us with the encouragement, strengthening, peace, and joy of Your Holy Spirit. We open our hearts to you to receive your abundant fullness not only for ourselves but also for the work of Your kingdom here on earth.
