2017 Holiday Season

“Have Yourself a Windy Merry Christmas”
www.newperceptions.tv

• The Missing Person
  • John D. Witvliet": "Our Christmas cards, carols, and crèches delight in the characters of the Christmas story. In pageants, there are a lot of parts to go around: Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus; the angels, the shepherds, and Magi; perhaps even Elizabeth and Zechariah, Simeon and Anna. But for all the times and ways the story is told, one key participant is almost impossible to find: the ." (Christianity Today December 2017 p58)
• Missing No Longer

The Holy Spirit Shows Up . . .

• #1—In .
  • Luke 1:15—"'Your son will be filled with the even before he is born.'"
  • Desire of Ages: "Even the babe in its mother’s arms may dwell as under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. If we will live in communion with God, we too may expect the divine Spirit to mold our little ones, even from their moments." (512)
• #2—In a .
  • Luke 1:35—"'The will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'"
• #3 —In an .
  • Luke 1:41—"When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the ."
  • Luke 1:67—"His father Zechariah was filled with the and prophesied, 'Praise be to the Lord!'"
• #4—In a .
  • Luke 1:80—"And the child grew and became strong in the ."
  • “[The Holy] Spirit loves to the children and discover to them the treasures and beauties of the Word. The promises spoken by the great Teacher will captivate the senses and animate the soul of the child with a spiritual power that is divine.” (Child Guidance 495)
  • Jean Twenge: “. . . many tech CEOs strictly regulate their own children’s technology use. When New York Times reporter Nick Bilton talked to Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs in late 2010, he asked Jobs if his kids loved the iPad. 'They haven’t used it,' Jobs said. 'We how much technology our kids use at home.' Bilton was shocked, but he later found that many other tech experts also limited their children’s screen time, from the cofounder of Twitter to the former editor of Wired magazine. So even people who love technology—and make a living off of it—are cautious about their kids using it too much. As Adam Alter put it in his book Irresistible, ''t seemed as if the people producing tech products were following the cardinal rule of drug dealing: Never get high on your own supply." (iGen 292)
• #5—In the .
  • Luke 2:25-26—"Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the was on him. It had been revealed to him by the that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the he went into the temple courts... and took the child in his arms and praised God."
• Christmas primer on how to be daily baptized with the Holy Spirit:
  • #1—The Set-up:
    
    • 15 minutes every morning—alone with Jesus.
    • Read one story from the Gospels—reread it to relive it.
  • #2—The Ask:
    
    • "Please baptize me with the same Holy Spirit that baptized Jesus in the story I just read."
    • "Morning by morning [Jesus] communicated with His Father in heaven, receiving from Him daily a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit." (Signs of the Times November 21, 1895).
  • #3—The Thank-you:
    
    • “Thank you for the fresh baptism I’ve received from you today.”
    • 1 John 5:14-15—"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him."
  • #4—The Go:
    
    • Proverbs 3:6 Message: "Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track."
    • Move into the world with your Friend the Holy Spirit.
  • Download the free book: www.steps-to-personal-revival.info

"And with that He breathed on them and said,
'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" (John 20:22)